


Love As It Is - Part 7

by Biodiversity (SoraSato)



Series: Overdrive [7]
Category: Is It Love (Visual Novels)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, F/M, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Polyamory, Smut, Talks of having children, Teacher-Student Relationship, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:41:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26128216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraSato/pseuds/Biodiversity
Summary: The adventures of a talented young archaeology student at the Mystic Spell town full of supernatural creatures. She finds herself entangled in a polyamory with the Bartholy brothers, when the drop-dead gorgeous archaeology professor comes along to complicate things even further... This time, their adventures continue in the hot jungle of South America, where Dr. Jones finally explains his version of the vampire origins, and Egypt, where it's hot...NOTE: The character of professor Sebastian Jones is a jaguar shapeshifter as explained in previous parts;Bartholys became Bartolis, Viktor became Vittore, Nicolae became Nicolas, and other minor differences.This installment is not yet divided into chapters, I will do it once I have some spare time.
Relationships: Nicolae Bartholy/Peter Bartholy/Drogo Bartholy/Sebastian Jones/Original Female Character
Series: Overdrive [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774561
Kudos: 1





	Love As It Is - Part 7

Sebastian felt apprehensive, closely watching Sienna’s reaction to his friend Esteban. Many women found Esteban attractive, and, knowing Sienna’s compulsive personality, he was never sure what was in stock with her.

But their first meeting went in a completely reverse way.

Sienna good-naturedly shook Esteban’s hand, and the latter’s eyes glazed. Jones instantly recognized that shimmer and sighed – his lover had a very predictable effect on men.

At the first occasion, barely out of the airport, Esteban accosted his buddy and, eyeing the behind of Sienna fooling around with Drogo, asked him in an excited whisper:

“Who – is – that – girl, amigo?!”

Sebastian’s brow curved, he looked at Esteban and answered in a light voice:

“My wife. Why?”

Esteban’s eyes momentarily flashed in surprise, then he laughed out loud, patting his buddy on the chest, and said in the same light manner:

“That’s a good one, amigo! Are you aware that your wife there is smooching with a good-for-nothing dimbo?”

Jones smiled crookedly:

“Hey, don’t offend my brother-in-arms!”

Esteban, still hanging on Jones’s shoulder, pressed on:

“I’m not joking, amigo, how serious is she with that guy?”

Sebastian lazily looked into his friend’s eyes and quietly said:

“Esteban, forget it.”

The steel behind the laziness in his gaze showed like a cat’s claw appearing from a soft paw, and Esteban understood that he was trespassing.

“Oh,” he removed his arm from his friend’s shoulder and cleared his throat. “All right. Not my business. Got it. I was just being curious…”

Sebastian answered evenly:

“I know what you were driving at. Now, where is our bus?”

* * *

Not bothering with appearances anymore, safely hidden from the prying eyes of their teammates in their bungalow, the three lovers removed their clothes and helped each other wash under the makeshift shower.

Sebastian, hiding a smirk, asked Sienna:

“So, how do you find our guide Esteban?”

The girl, while drying herself with a towel, shrugged her shoulders and answered vaguely in a flat voice:

“Appears to be a nice guy, but time will tell…”

Jones went on:

“Do you find him attractive? Many women do…”

Being not the one to beat around the bush, Sienna looked at her lover in surprise:

“I don’t find him attractive in any way, he is sleazy and not my type at all. What is this about, Sebastian?”

Jones smiled widely.

“Ah, there goes my theory that you happen to like all handsome men!”

Now the girl was dumbstruck. Drogo was watching the scene eyes wide. He snickered:

“Man, you are toast! Don’t say afterwards that I didn’t warn you!”

Sienna’s eyes displayed a mixture of disbelief and bewilderment when she glared at Jones. Her voice was deceptively calm.

“I don’t understand how **_you_** of all people can be so far off in stereotypes… Why are we even talking about this guy?”

Jones glanced at Drogo, the latter showed his palms gesturing that he was staying out of it, so Sebastian voiced his concerns:

“Here is how it goes. When I first met you out of the campus, you were making out not even with one, but two Bartoli brothers at once. At the same time, you expressed an interest in me and… Then I learned that you slept with all three of them. Frankly, I did not have the balls to turn you down at once however I wished to. Instead, I opted to wait it out until such a moment when you would sort out your affections. But it did not happen, it got even more complicated, all of Bartolis plus me in the picture apparently did not bother you. Peter had the most guts and jumped off this wagon. I’ve come to terms with the fact that you are not willing to let go of Drogo for the time being. I am aware that sometimes Nicolas gets your warmth as well. Hence, I… do not know anymore what to think, Sienna. You are telling me that you love me in such a profound way that I end up believing it each time. Maybe you believe it yourself when you say it. But I’m starting to doubt if I should be in this picture at all…”

He pursed his lips tightly, his eyes shimmering, put on his pants, and went to the door.

Sienna sighed.

“Yeah… Men are allowed to screw around, but when it comes to women…”

Jones, unable to look at her, shook his head.

“I’ve stopped doing that since you moved in. I don’t want anyone else at this point.”

The girl turned her head to look outside the window, her eyes glistening wetly.

“I understand how you feel. But you and Bartolis are my family, I don’t go seeking for more…!”

But the man turned away and dully said:

“At first, you said the Bartolis were your family. Then I tagged along…” and he went out.

Drogo rolled his eyes and followed Jones out of the bungalow.

The blond vampire went after Sebastian and resolutely held him by the elbow.

“Hey, man. Stop it. Stop this nonsense.”

Jones tried to get rid of the vampire, but the latter swiftly stepped in front of the man and looked him intensely in the eyes.

“You aren’t serious, are you?”

Jones tried to step aside, but Drogo did not let him and asked again:

“Do you love her? What is she to you? A pet?”

Sebastian frowned and hissed:

“You know very well that she’s not a pet to me!”

Drogo painfully squeezed the man’s elbow.

“Then say it!”

Sebastian paused, his jowls tense, then composed himself, exhaled and uttered completely seriously:

“Yes, I love her. And I want her to be mine and not an all-around freebie!”

The vampire was a good head lower than Jones and wirier, but his intensity could be nevertheless mind-blowing. He, never letting go of the man’s elbow with one hand, put his other hand on his neck and growled:

“Then this is not love. Do you trust her, or do you just want to own her like a pet dog on a leash?!”

Sebastian tried to shake off Drogo’s hands, but the vampire’s words went straight through, and he paused. Drogo took this pause as an opportunity to press on:

“I went through the same thing, man. When you came around, I was so angry I was ready to tear you to pieces, I was hungry for her and anxious that she would leave me out. But then I realized that no one would be happier if I did it, neither her nor me. It could mean the end! And I just… accepted the way of things. I enjoyed every stolen kiss, every touch, every chitchat, every visit to the grocery store, even when she was buying food for you and never ceased talking about you… And it was you, who’ve shown me how to do it! You just accepted me, you let me be there…! Hence, I do not understand what’s happening to you now! Are you worried that she will fall for your Esteban buddy like she did for you…? Will that change your feelings for her? Will you feel betrayed, damaged, crushed? Yes. But even so, even damaged, will you stop loving her?”

Jones stood there, trembling, his jaws tightly clenched.

Then he sighed deeply, and his body relaxed.

“Thank you, Drogo,” he uttered in a hoarse voice and paused, trying to collect his thoughts. “I needed the perspective…”

The vampire grinned, smacked him on the shoulder, and nodded toward the bungalow.

“Ok, buddy. I’ll go now...”

Before opening the door, Drogo turned one last time to Sebastian and said with a slight grin:

“You know, being a street urchin taught me a thing or two: stick to your pack and value those who love you,” and, softly laughing, he went inside.

Jones gulped a bit of night air and sighed heavily. This was a lot to process...

Sienna was sitting cross-legged on her bed, drinking beer, eating a sandwich, and reading a book.

When she saw Drogo entering, she sighed and frowned.

“Damn him! What’s his deal?”

Drogo shook his head and stroked her hair.

“You drive us all crazy, little thing…”

He leaned over her and kissed her on the neck, and Sienna’s skin covered in goosebumps. She giggled.

“You wily fruit-bat!”

Drogo smiled slyly.

“It’s not always that I can love you through my camera lens… Sometimes I need a little taste of you as well… If I were to call you a slut, you would take it as a compliment…”

Sienna giggled and spilled the beer. Drogo took the bottle, put it on the bedside table, and lay beside the girl on his side, his head propped against his fist, and the other hand wandering on her stomach and leg.

His gestures were lazy, but the gaze remained watchful. Sometime later, he asked her nonchalantly:

“What if you continue reading, and I just lick your pussy… for health’s sake… I will just have my little private fun with your labia, you don’t have to do anything, you can continue reading, eating, drinking…”

His finger leisurely wandered toward the leg hem of her shorts, bent around the central seam, and rubbed its joint on the girl’s crotch.

The girl wriggled her legs and giggled.

“Fornicator!”

Now Drogo’s tongue was venturing the same way, and Sienna moaned.

“All right, do whatever you like!”

The vampire grinned, pulled off her shorts and began stroking her nether regions.

“Go on, you may resume your reading…”

Shaking her head in amusement, she took the book and made an effort to read it.

On the other end of her torso, the vampire pressed his lips to her shaven labia and began cajoling them.

Sebastian was mad at himself. Now, he was seeing his father in him, having the same insecurities… But he was not his father. He remembered the choice that Sienna gave all of them in the car after the Christmas ball. What outweighs, the pain or affection?

Tonight, he was not sure affection outweighed the pain. He had to choose.

“Ahem… Professor…? Are you all right?”

He turned to see Samantha Gautier staring at him with a fake naïve look. She batted her eyelashes and chippered:

“I heard a commotion and thought it best to go see in case there was something serious …”

Jones shook his head and made an effort to smile:

“Nothing serious, just normal everyday life… You may go to bed, miss Gautier…”

Samantha theatrically rolled her eyes.

“Ah, it’s impossible to sleep in such conditions!”

Dr. Jones shrugged his shoulders.

“Wait ‘till you see the jungle.”

Samantha sighed and decided to switch tactics.

“Did that Drogo character bother you? I wouldn’t be surprised if that Bartoli with that nanny of theirs were mean to you… sir.”

Sebastian looked at the girl almost with pity.

“Get to sleep, miss Gautier. We’ll have a long day ahead of us…”

And he strolled to the lake shore, where he took off his clothes and dove in.

*** 

He returned to the bungalow in the wee hours of the morning, and contemplated the entangled sleeping couple… “Being a street urchin…” Now this made a lot of sense at last. Drogo’s acidity, the deeply wounded side, the artist… The most incredible thing about him was his humane side remaining somewhere around and shining through like a diamond… The one who has never suffered will never understand the value of love… “…stick to your pack and value those who love you…”

Sebastian was well aware of things a child would face in the streets in the wake of the Great Gatsby’s time, and children prostitution was a far lesser evil than some other dangers of the time…

He sighed. Indeed, that Drogo remained half-humane was an incredible feat in itself.

He tucked their blanket for additional warmth and wrapped himself in another blanket on the other side of the bed. There were still a few hours to catch up on sleep.

***

Esteban was pounding on their door like insane.

“Wakey-wakey! Time to have breakfast and leave for the great adventure!”

Sebastian was not ready to get up. He heard Drogo’s rude: “Shut it, you moron!” and totally approved of it.

They slowly were making it to the surface of dreams.

Sienna saw Jones on the other side of the bed, moaned, and covered her head with the blanket.

Drogo asked her sleepily:

“What’s up, sweetness?”

Sienna grumbled and pressed more tightly to Drogo.

“He has been kissing me very tenderly on the left side of the head for the whole night!”

Sebastian shook his head without opening his eyes.

“Not true. I wasn’t here all night. I came in the morning and I did not touch you.”

She stirred.

“But I knew it was you!”

He shook his head again and sighed.

“No. It wasn’t me.”

Drogo muttered:

“Nor me, sweetness. Must’ve been some kissing incubus…”

Sienna winced, her eyes still filled with sand.

“Sebastian, I’m still pissed off at you.”

Jones, never opening his eyes, murmured:

“I know.”

“You’re such a jerk!” she exclaimed without much conviction.

He sighed, still trying to catch a wink.

“Yes. Definitely. A shithead…” he was finally drifting into sleep again…

Drogo and Sienna were grooming each other at the breakfast table so thoroughly that Samantha groaned:

“You’re making me wanna vomit!”

Sienna smiled sweetly at her.

“Hold it up until you see Loan, Samantha!”

Students chuckled. None of Samantha’s clique made it to the finals, and no one else wished to support her.

Esteban intervened:

“Has anyone seen Sebastian? I mean your Dr. Jones? Is he awake?”

Sienna sighed and stood up.

“I’ll try to fetch him…”

When she came in, he was doing push-ups on the floor.

When their eyes met, they felt a mutual attraction taking hold again.

Sebastian raised to one knee for pause and stood there looking at Sienna, his breath labored.

She simply covered the remaining distance and hugged the man, clutching his head to her bosom.

“I’m so sorry you feel this way,” she murmured, caressing his head.

“Sienna…” he was still a little distanced, keeping the right to decide for himself.

But she was accepting, yielding.

“I’m sorry, I pushed it too far for everyone…” she murmured, kissing him on top of his head.

She felt his entire body melt in her arms, his breathing slowing down, a great sigh escaping him. She softly cradled his head, feeling the man relax.

The pause stretched on, but it did a world of good to them both.

At last, he sighed, stood up to his full height, lifted her chin, and tenderly kissed her on the lips. She felt her whole body awakening under his touch. He looked her in the eyes and said softly:

“I want to explain to you certain things about men. I know that you like my commanding side, and, being responsible for many people, it becomes my second nature, but it comes with a shortcoming – I become possessive. Our fragile truce with Drogo is holding up so far, but we are both alphas, and it is extremely hard to maintain balance when some outside forces add into play. This is why I ask you for… reassurance. I am strong, and I can juggle many things, but sometimes I need your support too.”

The girl sighed and pressed her cheek to his chest. She could barely imagine how much strength it cost him to admit to his weakness and ask for her help. She greatly appreciated his effort.

“Got it. I cannot kiss you in public to reassure you, but I’ll be there for you. I admire you and your commanding air, your candor with me, and your strength... You are everything others should look up to. Of course, I’m at your side.”

Jones smiled weakly.

“Thank you, Sienna.”

Sienna kissed him on the mouth but interrupted it before they got more involved.

“Sebastian, people are waiting for you…” she sighed, stepping away from the man.

He nodded and quickly donned a shirt, visibly invigorated, and full of enthusiasm.

“Lead the way!”

Drogo was treating himself to a cherimoya and spitting out seeds when he saw both his friends coming to the table. He grinned mischievously.

“Hey, if I were to have reconciliatory sex, I would make sure it lasts more than two seconds!”

Sienna mockingly frowned at him and grumbled:

“Shut it, Drogo!” She sat beside him and accepted another half of the custard-apple from his hand.

Sebastian went straight to his buddy, they shook hands, and began discussing plans.

***

A large cargo plane smoothly delivered them to their forward camp, where three of Sebastian’s colleagues were already waiting for them.

Professor Benjamin Norhill shook Jones’s hand and laughed:

“Ah, the kindergarten arrived! Frankly, Jones, I do not envy you! How do you manage to handle them? I would never agree to manage such a zoo!”

Jones shrugged his shoulders, reluctantly smiled back, and answered elusively:

“It was a package deal.”

***

Apart from the students and hired help, there was also equipment, provisions, and logistics to take care of, and it all looked like a military operation. And when Sienna saw Jones at the center of this gigantic mayhem, handling everyone and everything, she came to truly appreciate his organizational skills and his role in it. Also, she understood why there were so many advance preparations… The other archaeologists participating in the expedition were to supervise their share of students and hired help on the dig site, but outside of it, they were making it clear that “the kindergarten” was not their charge. The downside of Jones being the head of the expedition turned out that he was left exactly zero spare time to recharge his batteries, and by the time he returned to their spacious 6-person tent (crammed with stuff so that only three persons could sleep there) in the evening, he was only capable to wash himself with a wet sponge, kiss Sienna goodnight and fall asleep.

“Aren’t you happy that you took me to this romantic trip?” grinned Drogo, laughing at the girl’s disappointed face.

***

“We need someone light and strong there,” said Dr. Maria Gutierrez, returning to Jones from the cliff. “We can see the opening, but our guys are too bulky to squeeze in. The camera shows that there is a drop, but we cannot say how long…”

Jones nodded.

“Someone call miss Gautier and miss Richards here!”

When the girls arrived, he curtly nodded to them and let Dr. Gutierrez explain the situation. Then he said:

“We need only one person. It’s up to you to decide which one of you will go.”

Samantha apprehensively watched again the video from the camera and shook her head.

“I’ll leave this dirty hole to your pet Sienna, I bet she’s used to such places,” and she left, leaving Dr. Gutierrez flabbergasted.

“Is this one of your best students?” she asked Jones, whose face did not even flinch – he did not have the luxury nor time to get emotional.

“Yep. And one of the deepest pockets in the University as well. All right. Sienna, what do you say?”

The girl grinned.

“I’m not afraid of dirty holes.”

Finally, Sebastian’s face cracked in a weak smile, and he nodded.

“Thank you. Keep me posted.”

***

This was one of the most exciting adventures that she ever participated in. All her hellish training now concentrated in this action. When she was buckled into a harness, she felt shivering with arousal, because those were Jones’s hands that did it all the countless times before, and the instant was stirring her memory. People patted her on the shoulders, trying to cheer her up, but only Drogo smiled knowingly at her – he had an idea what she was experiencing at the moment. As she was lowered down the face of the cliff and leveled with the crack, her heart pounded as if ready to make love to the cave, to the rocks, and when she squeezed into the hole, she let out a languorous sigh that sent shivers down the spine of the young technician monitoring her descent.

Unceremoniously, Drogo took the guy’s headset and whispered in her ear:

“Richards, keep it cool, I will wait for your return…”

Her voice in the headset was cheerful.

“Ah, Drogo, you’ll need a fire extinguisher for my return…! There is a slope here, but it goes steeper and steeper…”

D.: “I’m seeing what you’re seeing, my love.”

S.: “What did you just say?”

D.: “Keep going, little thing!”

S.: “So, you never got guts to tell it to me face to face…”

D.: “Little thing, the camera records everything, you may even put my words on a remix later…”

S.: “Damn it…!”

D.: “What’s wrong?”

S.: “Uh, nothing, a rock just came loose…”

D.: “Be careful.”

S.: “I know.”

People gathered around the monitor, professor Gutierrez asking Sienna to look left or right.

Now Sienna was proceeding farther and farther from the entrance, but no one, including her, could see any signs of human activity.

Dr. Gutierrez opened her mouth to order the student to return when everyone saw something on the monitor.

“Wait! Did you see that?!”

Sienna’s head camera returned to the spot. Among stalagmites, there was one that looked very much like a carved statue. It looked very old, its features almost gone. The girl looked around.

“There must be another entrance, the statue looks that way…” she said and carefully proceeded to the left of the statue.

“Clever girl!” whispered Dr. Gutierrez appreciatively, her gaze glued to the monitor.

For another hundred yards nothing happened, but the space around Sienna began shrinking again…

Suddenly, she lost her footing, and the camera shook frenetically.

Her scared yelp made Drogo jump.

“What’s happened?! Sienna, can you hear me?!”

For an excruciatingly long minute, there was silence, the camera was showing unintelligible images.

“Sienna!!!”

Finally, her voice made everyone present sigh in relief.

“Don’t yell in my ear, Drogo, you’ll bust my eardrum!”

“You scared the hell out of me! What’s happened?”

“A pitfall happened. Apparently, swinging on a chandelier is my thing…”

“Not funny, little thing! What exactly happened?”

Her camera showed the rim of a hole, her lifeline pressed down by a massive boulder. Then the girl showed her dangling feet and the blackness below her.

Dr. Gutierrez waived to a student to come closer and whispered:

“Call Dr. Jones.”

Now all present tried to figure out what exactly happened and where the girl fell into the pitfall.

Drogo was hearing her breath and her pulse rise.

“Just don’t panic, it’s gonna be all right, okay?” he whispered to her soothingly, trying to breathe calmly.

Then he heard a commotion behind him.

“She’s a first-year, goddammit! She wasn’t supposed to go further! Once she saw the statue, you had to order her return!” now that was Jones, and he was furious at his colleague.

But once he came to the monitor, he became utterly calm and collected.

“Give me the connection,” he ordered and put on a headset, staring at the monitor.

“Sienna. This is Sebastian. Can you hear me?”

The girl sniffled.

“Yes, I can.”

His voice became melliferous as he uttered:

“Everything will be fine, Sienna. Stay with me, okay?”

S.: “Okay.”

J.: “Can you do something for me, baby?”

S.: “Yes…”

J.: “First, please listen to my voice. Okay?”

S.: “Okay.”

J.: “Now, slowly breathe in. breathe out. In… Out… In… Out… In… Out… Let me guide you. In… Out… In… Out… You are just my eyes and ears. In… Out… What do you see above you?”

S.: “The boulder.”

J.: “What’s below you?”

S.: “Cannot see, it’s pitch black. My torchlight is not strong enough.”

J.: “What’s on your left?”

S.: “The rim of the pit.”

J.: “And on the right?”

S.: “The rim. And farther on – the wall.”

Jones carefully studied the monitor.

“What’s in front of you?”

S.: “My rope.”

J.: “Can you turn 180 degrees and tell me what’s behind you?”

S.: “Yes. The rim of the pit is about twenty yards away.”

Jones muted the connection, his eyes withdrawn and reflecting an intense thinking process, and said to no one in particular:

“It’s a trap. She’s lucky the boulder did not cut the rope and did not fall on her head.”

Then he switched on the connection again and said in a calm soft voice:

“All right. Stay with me. Do you have water on you?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to take a few gulps.”

She obediently took her flask and drank from it.

Jones asked:

“Do you have any additional rope on you?”

“Yes, a small hank…”

He consulted people around:

“How long is the hank that you gave her?”

Someone answered:

“About twelve yards…”

Jones nodded and turned to the monitor again.

“Now listen to me, Sienna. Here is what we are going to try with you. You will attach the length of the rope to the lifeline, climb back to the boulder and use the additional length to go _lengthwise_ , along the boulder. You’ll have to use pegs and carabiners like we practiced, remember? But avoid putting pressure on the boulder itself. As far as I can see, on your left, the obstacle is not big enough to touch the wall, and you can climb up there and bypass it. Then you will unbuckle your harness and return to the statue, where you reattach the harness to your lifeline, and we will be welcoming you here with a cold bottle of beer. Okay?”

Sienna nodded and feebly joked:

“First, I will need a shower.”

“Whatever strikes your fancy.”

Her physical training allowed her to smoothly execute Jones’s every command, but when she climbed out and went around the boulder, she exclaimed:

“Sebastian, you’ll owe me more than a beer! I can see an opening previously closed by the boulder. It leads outside, and there is a path with well-used stairs!”

There was a general roar of cheer. Sebastian smiled.

“Climb back here, and I will kiss you!”

As promised, as soon as Sienna appeared on the edge of the cliff, Jones hugged her, lifted, and tightly pressed his lips to her cheek to the general cheer and applause. Then Drogo hugged her in his turn and kissed her much more sensually.

“I was sure you’d make it, my tough little thing!”

The crew was cheering, calling Sienna their heroine of the day, people patted her, gave her a beer and a wet towel, and started zooming around complying with Dr. Jones’s orders to go explore the cliff face for the passage opened by Sienna.

When all the new orders were being carried out, Dr. Jones ordered to Drogo and Sienna:

“Come with me.”

They went through the maze of crates and tents and smoothly ducked into their tent.

“I believe you deserve a treat…” whispered Jones, pulling off her shirt.

The men washed her with wet sponges, and when she finally sighed from the pleasure of feeling clean and relaxed, they started lightly kissing her everywhere.

“With such treatment, I can go dangle in pits every day…” she sighed, smiling.

Sebastian muttered:

“I worried myself grey!”

With each passionate moan, they felt tension releasing, melting, giving way to acute feverish torrid pleasure.

With Drogo’s cock in her mouth, and Sebastian’s in her pussy, Sienna came rapturously, abandoning all caution. Drogo shuddered, experiencing three orgasms at once, and Sebastian finally loosened the grip on the girl’s hips, feeling sweet convulsions spreading from her vagina to his whole body.

The screech of the radio that he never parted with unpleasantly interrupted their post-coital languor.

Sebastian sighed and took the call.

“Jones here.”

“Need your assistance at the passage.”

“Is it urgent?”

“Well, we cannot proceed without your further instructions.”

“I’ll be in ten. Out.”

Jones sighed and reluctantly pulled out.

“Damn.”

Sienna caressed his pectorals.

“Just try to finish your affairs earlier…”

He shook his head.

“Tonight, we all must be visible. At dinner, people will want to talk to you.”

He kissed her. She strongly smelled of Drogo, but it did not deter him.

Sienna pulled him closer to her and murmured:

“I’m still counting on round two…”

Jones grinned crookedly as he was putting on his shirt.

“You’re the heroine of the day, baby. Your wish is my command,” he kissed her one last time and darted out of the tent.

***

Diane Holz was a beautiful third-year student under Dr. Benjamin Norhill’s command. She had lustrous chestnut hair and brown eyes. Until the start of the new school year, she was sure that Dr. Sebastian Jones was not immune to her charms, but then he drifted away, and when she saw the video of him dancing with a sexy freshman, she understood the reason. All this time she could only hope to touch him in passing, and this brat was performing pirouettes on his neck!

Diane was furious. She spent her first year trying to get noticed, and her second year passed in a multitude of schemes on how to become special, and now: Bam! She was again at square one!

And not only at square one, but even lower, non-existing, unnoticed, as long as Dr. Jones had that inseparable blond duo around him. She could not get the nature of their relationship. Dr. Jones treated Drogo as a friendly equal, the Richards girl got a lot of affectionate touching from him, and Drogo with Richards were shamelessly smooching just about everywhere. All in all, the three of them were very tactile with one another, and it was impossible to tell what it was all about.

Diane was willing to view Dr. Jones’s behavior as that of a big brother toward his younger siblings (?) and tried to convince herself that these people were somehow related outside of curricular activities. She had no proof either way, but at least this explanation calmed her a bit.

When she saw Dr. Jones strolling out of a tent, Diane pricked her ears. Something in the way he looked was suspicious. He was… disheveled. And it was completely out of his character. Apart from his wild hair, nothing about him was ever disheveled! Furthermore, upon seeing her, he sharply turned to the left, instead of going straight ahead as he’d intended before seeing her. She followed him with her gaze. He went to the makeshift showers. She followed him from afar, trying not to get too close.

But near the showers, he appeared right in front of her and asked her, grinning sympathetically:

“Ah, miss Holz, how fortunate that you followed me! Could you please go over there at turn on the faucet? I’ll be much obliged.” And he hid behind the shower curtain.

Diane stood there stupefied. Her adorable professor smelled of sex and embalming incense. Drogo’s signature smell. Could that be… Oh God, no!... Diane was feeling sick. Her world was losing its reality. As if in a dream, she went to turn on the faucet, trying to fight the dawning realization that her beloved professor was… OMG! She could not even think of pronouncing the word! Gay! But it all fitted: his tidiness, his attention to his body, his stylishness, his love for dancing… She turned the faucet on and hurried to hide somewhere so that no one would see her tears. So, the Richards girl was just a cover… OMG! OMG! OMG! That’s why they were so freely touching each other – there was no sexual tension between them, that’s why!

***

Sebastian was worried about the scope of what that snoopy miss Holz could have gathered from his appearance at the tent. He was silently praying that she would not be eavesdropping, so he decided to observe her for a while. Such complications were inevitable at such a large camp, but he already internally agreed to their unavoidability and stopped fretting.

He hastily washed off the incriminating smells and hurried to the passage. Several people were standing there, conversing in low voices.

Dr. Jones curtly asked them:

“What’s the matter?”

One of the men said:

“We could remove this boulder altogether, just push it into the pit; it would save us the trouble of going around it every time.”

Dr. Jones shook his head.

“Until we know for sure what’s at the bottom of the pit, I cannot agree to it. Give me a harness and a headlamp.”

The equipment was collected for him at the speed of light, and he began his descent into the darkness.

The pit was very deep, but Jones managed to reach its bottom at last. In the murky light reflecting off stalagmites, he saw some debris. Drawing closer, he understood what he was looking at. There was a multitude of human and animal bones strewn all around him. In order not to touch anything, he turned in his harness horizontally, trying to descry as much as he could. He made a 360-degrees turn for the sake of the camera and signaled for his men to pull him up. The pit looked promising, but first, they had to prioritize the scope of their works.

Upon returning, he told the crew:

“At first glance, there are many bones of those who fell or were pushed into the pit, so there is no option to push the boulder there. Let it lie in its place until tomorrow, then we will decide on the course of action. We still need to explore the way to the temple to the right of the stalagmite statue.”

The rest of the day went down in similar small discoveries. Sienna and Drogo had an opportunity to explore the passage; it led them far away from the mountain, where Drogo snacked on a small tapir, and they had to hurry back to be at the camp for dinner.

It took long enough to answer all questions and to recount Sienna’s adventure for about a hundred times, but finally, everything was said and done, and, at last, the lucky trio obtained a chance to slip away from the general ruckus.

Having tripped a few times on her way, Sienna sighed in exasperation.

“I’m the most disadvantaged of you guys! Could you at least slow down?”

Without arguing, Sebastian lifted the girl and carried her all the way to the tent.

Sienna looked at his phosphorescent moons of eyes, and a sudden question popped into her mind:

“And how do you explain your eyes to other people?”

He shrugged his shoulders:

“Artificial lenses. People believe it.”

The girl smiled dreamily.

“I just realized that I will be totally blind inside the tent, while you both will be able to see me. That’s unfair. I want to see you!”

Sebastian put her on the ground beside the tent and murmured:

“I can blindfold myself to even out our chances…”

Drogo’s eyes glinted with a wicked light.

“Oh, now that’s quite an idea!”

They went inside, closed the door, and began ripping off clothes.

“Just need to remind you that we should try to keep quiet…” said Sebastian, tying a bandana over his eyes.

Drogo grinned.

“Why should we? Aren’t you sick of these hide-and-seek games?”

Jones sighed.

“Yes. But even if we come out of the closet, so to speak, there is no need to antagonize people around us. They need a rest, not a night concert.”

Drogo shrugged his shoulders.

“Fair enough. But it’s not me you should worry about…”

Sienna groaned.

“All right, I’ll do my best. If I will be able to remember. If I start being loud, just put a hand over my mouth…”

Drogo laughed and lustfully stroked her lips with his fingertips.

“Oh, I can think of a few ways to shut you up…”

Reluctantly, he took another bandana and covered his eyes.

Sienna shivered. She had no way of instantly telling whose hands and mouths were caressing her skin. The only way she could recognize them was by their temperature, Drogo being more or less warm, and Sebastian being pleasantly hot…

“God how much I love you both…” she whispered breathlessly, arching her back when two mouths covered her nipples and two different hands slid to caress her tummy, hips, and crotch. Two marvelous tools pressed to her thighs, and she wanted them both.

They made sure that the prelude was long and varied, that the tension was building up gradually, and that she remained confused as to who was where. But she easily identified Sebastian and clang to him affectionately.

“I’ve been missing you,” she whispered, giving him a profound kiss and putting her legs on his hips.

“Me too, baby, I’ve been wanting so much to be with you…”

Drogo gave them enough space and time to reunite, then, as soon as their first passions were doused, softly reminded of his own presence and was rewarded with a magnificent threesome that lasted until dawn. Sienna undulated in their arms and between their hips like soft clay, playing a thin barrier between their two cocks feeling each other through her anal and vaginal muscles. They were so aroused by their rivalry that their grunts and frenetic movements lost all resemblance to human sounds and actions. While cumming, Sienna suddenly smelled the sharp metallic smell of blood. Turned out that Drogo, unable to resist the temptation, almost bit her but at the last moment put his own arm in the way of his teeth. Shudders went through all of them with such intensity that they could not stay silent any longer.

“Excellent! We’ve awoken this whole damn camp!” grumbled Sebastian, luxuriating in the last shudders. His topmost position gave him the privilege to be the one deciding whether the process was over. He felt Sienna with his fingertips. The girl was wonderfully relaxed. “Do you want a small afterparty, baby?”

He heard her smile.

“Of course, my king!”

Sebastian helped her lie down on her mattress and began tenderly caressing her body.

Drogo used this time to lick off all traces of his own blood from his arm and lips, drank some water to wash his mouth, and then asked Sienna:

“Do you want me to make him company?”

The girl grinned and whispered:

“Yes, please.”

Before getting down to business, Drogo mumbled:

“I’ll have to remember this ‘afterparty’ notion…”

Having spilled no semen, Jones was feeling energetic and decided against sleeping at all. Instead, he trotted outside the camp, hid his clothes and his sleeping bag in a fallen tree trunk, turned into a jaguar, and ran into the jungle.

***

In the morning, people at breakfast seemed electrified, when Sienna and Drogo with a picturesque mess on his head made it to the table. Seeing angry glares, Drogo smiled brightly to them all, made a wide theatrical bow, and then put his hand to his chest.

“Thank you all, thank you! It warms my heart to know that you’ve appreciated my efforts!”

Someone irritably growled:

“Seemed more than one voice in that orchestra!”

Drogo curved his brow and hungrily bit into a crunchy toast:

“Huh, I thought I was the only one singing in the shower… Or… are we talking about the same thing?”

While her lover was busy teasing angry bulls, Sienna acted completely natural, as if all this drama was absolutely unrelated to her. She took a coffee, a few toasts, a bit of soft cheese and a dragon-fruit, and sat at an empty place.

When annoyed voices became louder, many people saw Dr. Jones approaching them from the side of the forest, carrying his sleeping bag, his hair studded with forest debris.

Completely bewildered, he approached the gathering and inquired in a stern voice:

“What’s this ruckus is all about?”

Drogo grinned at him.

“People are apparently discontented with my love-making technique…”

Jones rolled his eyes.

“I told you a hundred times not to disturb people’s sleep!”

The same burly guy grumbled again:

“He was not the only one to disturb people…”

Jones looked at him inquiringly, then shrugged his shoulders completely nonchalantly:

“Well, evidently he wasn’t alone…” he put his sleeping bag on a bench and threw his hands up. “All right, people. Here, we all live closely together. Naturally, all people have needs. So please mind others. I think it would be fair if all intimate matters were settled before midnight. Everyone agrees?”

People started nodding, relieved, but the burly man still asked:

“And what about you, Dr. Jones? What about your ‘needs’?”

Dr. Jones looked at the man as if the latter just came out of a flying saucer.

“And what about them, Miles? Sorry to disappoint you, but you’re not exactly my type.”

Several people giggled, and Miles decided against continuing down this precarious path.

When people finished their breakfast and dispersed hurrying about their business, Jones approached his lovers with a guilty look on his face.

“It would be so much better if I could just approach you and kiss you good morning instead of this theater…”

Drogo shrugged his shoulders.

“Makes good entertainment though.”

Sebastian lightly hugged Sienna.

“How are you doing, baby?” he kissed her on the temple and smiled at her tenderly.

She hugged him back and leaned her head against his chest.

“A bit sleepy. Will we go on exploring the other way from the statue?”

Jones smiled.

“Sure. You’ll go with me, for yesterday, I almost went grey with that accident of yours.”

Sienna grinned.

“Yay! Cool!”

Both men laughed at such an expression of enthusiasm and went to change clothes and prepare for the descent.

Gradually, Jones was less and less hiding his caring attitude toward Sienna, which made many brows rise, but as they were dubbed ‘the inseparable trio’ and maintained a steady schedule of dance training (enjoyed by many spectators), he deemed it unnecessary to excessively separate himself from the blond pair. He just made sure their relationship never went in the way of business, and, after the fateful night, never allowed them to be loud in the vicinity of the camp.

***

Drogo was sitting in the shade of a tree, his trusty camera beside him, and sketching the next jewelry piece.

A beautiful student with chestnut hair and brown eyes came up to him and smiled invitingly.

“Hey there! I was wondering, weren’t you that photographer who captured Dr. Jones for the Aperture Magazine?”

Drogo nodded, still busy with his sketch.

The girl smiled a perfect white smile.

“Your shot was absolutely fabulous! I was speechless when I saw it! It’s so beautiful!”

Drogo glanced at her cursorily.

“What do you want?” he asked without any ado.

The girl tilted her head.

“I was just hoping to make a personal acquaintance with such talent!”

Drogo finally looked at her straight in the eyes.

“What’s your name?”

“Diane. Nice to…”

“Could you grab a beer, Diane, and come back here?”

She hesitated for a moment, unsure where he was leading to but then nodded:

“Sure!”

She returned with two beers, but Drogo shook his head.

“Oh, it’s for you! Don’t worry, I’ll eventually taste it…”

The cute student sat next to him and peeped at his sketch.

“Wow! You are so talented!”

Drogo winced.

“I heard it the first time. Drink your beer and tell me everything.”

The girl acted playfully:

“Everything? Is that even possible?”

Drogo, still drawing, muttered:

“Depends…”

She paused and asked him boldly:

“Where is your girlfriend? You seem inseparable, people even dubbed you the Siamese twins…”

Drogo glanced at her askance and grumbled reluctantly:

“That’s a popular misconception.”

The girl’s heart began pounding like mad, and Drogo heard it. She hesitated before asking:

“You mean… You are not…”

Finally, Drogo, having lost his patience, ordered her using his vampiric ability:

“Drink both beers and tell me the purpose of your questions.”

Diane, glassy-eyed, obediently drank at first one bottle then another and answered:

“I want to know if Dr. Jones is gay and if not, how I can get him to be mine.”

Drogo whistled.

“Wow. Such an appetite… All right, turn around and stand still. You just scratched your leg on a nail protruding from a crate and I helped you stop the blood…”

With his archer’s ring, he deeply cut her shin and amply drank from the wound. Then he thoroughly licked the cut, and the coagulant in his saliva instantly stopped the bleeding.

The girl began swaying from the loss of blood, and the vampire let her collapse next to him like a sack of flour.

He took an empty bottle pretending to have drunk it, and exclaimed, grinning, in a different modality:

“Wow! Are you sure you know how to drink? You’re totally tipsy…”

Diane looked at him, spaced out, and blubbered:

“Oh, maybe it’s the heat… Usually, I’m much more resilient…”

Drogo benevolently listened to her chirping and continued drawing until he saw that he was portraying Sienna again. He sighed, looking into the penciled eyes, and lightly smiled to the image.

The intrusive Diane stared over his shoulder and grinned:

“You sure can draw! She looks prettier than in life!”

Drogo gazed at her with his eyes glowing red and growled:

“You know, Diane, you’ll never get Dr. Jones. And you know why? Because you are a cute scheming hypocritic bitch.”

Turning beetroot-red, Diane Holz jumped to her feet, swayed, exclaimed: “Doormat!” and, tripping and swaying, scurried away.

Drogo sniggered in her back and, resuming his activity, murmured under his breath: “Thank you for a snack!”

***

In the evening, when the crew returned from the caves, all people were dirty, tired but very happy. Sienna was positively shining, and Sebastian was grinning like a kid under the Christmas tree. The others were as gleeful.

“…At least 1400-ies! But maybe some 50-60 years earlier…!”

“…we need pottery to verify that, none is found so far…”

“We’ll have to check the pit to establish the timeline…”

The team dumped their equipment and went showering, still discussing their finds.

A bit later, at the dinner table, the whole camp was eagerly listening to the archaeologists and their finds. Peoples’ eyes were glazed with a dream-like state of pure bliss.

The only one unimpressed was Drogo. He was smiling kindly to his friends, endeared by their childish enthusiasm and thinking about the prospects of this expedition. The more they found in that cave temple, the more it brought them together, the more time they spent together…

As if sensing his melancholy, Sienna looked at him, smiling, and went to sit next to him. She kissed him on the cheek and asked:

“And how was your day?”

The vampire shrugged his shoulders.

“Found a new form of earrings, inspired by all this antique junk you’re excavating, hunted a peccary, snacked on a student here…”

“Drogo! How could you!”

“She was badmouthing you and wanted to get into the pants of your dear professor.”

Sienna’s brow curved dramatically.

“Ah, that so?! In that case, bon appetit, dear. Who is she?”

Drogo scratched his head.

“No idea, some Diane… Let’s ask the man…” he nodded in the direction of the approaching Sebastian.

He was grinning and chewing on a roasted guinea pig.

The vampire squinted at him and asked:

“Do you happen to know some Diane? Student of yours…?”

Sebastian’s face instantly darkened, he put his plate on a nearby crate.

“Diane Holz? What about her?”

Drogo was amused by the professor’s seriousness.

“Oh, she dropped by today. Was interested in learning how to get into your pants…”

Both Drogo and Sienna did not expect such a reaction from Jones, for he looked extremely embarrassed.

“Damn,” he uttered and looked away, putting his arms akimbo.

Both blonds were watching him inquisitively, looking indeed like two Siamese cats from the Disney cartoon.

Drogo whispered into Sienna’s ear:

“Bet he had an affair with her… Our professor prefers freshmen…”

Sebastian, still not looking at them, grumbled angrily:

“I heard you.”

The vampire chortled:

“Don’t tell me it’s not true.”

Jones swore under his breath, turned to Sienna, and squatted near her.

“It’s… not like that. I never slept with her…” he gulped some air, then continued with an effort: “I had… feelings for her… I liked her. But that’s it, I did not go any further.”

A student came closer and called out: “Professor?” interrupting Jones and giving him a respite.

But before turning to the student, Sebastian cast an insistent look at Sienna, as if trying to reinforce his message, and only after that, he looked at the messenger.

“Yes, Malcolm, what’s the matter?”

The student dutifully replied:

“Professor Norhill says we need someone to make a trip to Puno, here is the list of needed things…”

He handed a paper to Dr. Jones and left them.

Without seeing the text, Sebastian glanced at the paper and crammed it into his shirt pocket. Then he looked again at the silent Sienna and clasped his palms in a prayer gesture.

“Please don’t think for a second that…” he lowered his head, exasperated, and covered his nose and mouth with his hands.

The girl was sitting next to the vampire, calmly watching her beloved man going through a turmoil. After a while, she gently touched his arm and whispered to him:

“I trust you. As much as when I got stuck in the pit. Your voice was my lifeline. You guided me through that situation. You were there for me. Now listen to me. It’s normal to like other people, even to like them a lot. It does not change what you have with me. Everything you do, will be all right, okay?”

Sebastian looked at her in the eyes and hugged the girl, disregarding the fact that they were in plain view. He kissed her on the top of the head, let her go, rose and uttered:

“Thank you. I believe I need to go talk to… her.”

Drogo broke into a smirk.

“Take your time, professor.”

***

He found Diane Holz sitting in the company of her friends near a campfire.

When he appeared near her, she looked at him with such vulnerable eyes that Jones’s stomach wrung in knots.

“Miss Holz, may I have a word with you?”

She nodded, and strolled hurriedly after him into the shade of a stack of crates, out of the others’ earshot.

“Is this about my today’s conversation with Drogo Bartoli?” she asked anxiously and added hurriedly: “I admit, it did not go very well, we just drank a bit of beer, and I went woozy from the heat. Maybe I said something I did not intend to…”

His proximity was intoxicating, his warm eyes looking at her with a troubling disturbed expression. It was as if he could not decide something…

“Miss Holz… Diane…” he said at last in a very soft voice. “I just realized that I was leading you on for a long time. I am afraid this cannot go on any further. You are a beautiful and smart person, and the sooner you stop harboring hope in my regard, the sooner you’ll be able to move on with your life…”

She heard him, each of his words hurting like daggers, but she just could not resist the proximity of his body…

They found themselves kissing, Diane passionately devouring his lips, her hands feverishly wandering about his torso…

“Woah! I’ll need popcorn here!” a jeering female voice shook them up, and Samantha Gautier strolled closer, being extremely happy to have caught on such a juicy sight.

Sebastian shuddered, cast a glance at both girls, and frowned.

“Diane, it’s a shame that you did not hear any of what I just told you, but if it has to be done the hard way, and with a witness, so be it. I do not intend to have an affair with you. Move on.”

And he left into the woods surrounding the camp.

***

Having walked farther away, he removed his clothes, stuffed them into the usual tree trunk, peed near it, and turned into a jaguar. The animal smelled the surroundings, made a tour of its territory, hunted a paca, and then stood smelling the heady cocktail of human activity. It repelled him, but then he distinguished the sound of a female voice that he knew very well. She was saying something to another high-pitched female, and their interaction did not seem peaceful at all.

The jaguar scratched a tree trunk to leave his scent, had a roll on the ground, climbed a tree, and picked a thick branch as an observation post. He yawned and sprawled on the branch, content with the paca snack in his stomach.

His familiar female was approaching. She was upset. The jaguar observed her going deeper into the thicket and smelled the air. There were no other large predators in the vicinity, except for the white one, the one, whose smell mingled with the female’s. The jaguar bared his huge fangs but continued his surveillance of the girl.

She stood there, her arms crossed on her chest, immersed in her feelings. An easy prey. But he knew better, he remembered her holding his head, remembered her smell that promised him life… He jumped off his post and completely noiselessly approached her. A black shadow on black background, he almost reached her before she noticed him.

The girl yelped in fear and fell on her back. He drew still closer, calmly watching her moves. She was watching him as well, her eyes wide with fear mingled with excitement, her heart racing.

He licked his nose and sprawled regally just a few paces away from her, breathing in her smell and trying not to look at her too intensely.

She regained her voice and chirped a few familiar sounds in a very tender voice. He started quietly purring, and this sound made her very happy. She repeated the sequence of sounds in an inquiring tone. “Sebastian?”

He licked his front paw, continuing to purr.

The female made a cautious attempt to touch his head, and at first, he shook her off, but then he heard her whispering in the same soothing tone he remembered, and he let her touch him. She began lightly scratching his forehead, ears, nose, jawline, and his purring increased in volume.

“Do you remember me?” she whispered, scratching the animal’s neck and grinning from ear to ear. “How could I be angry with such a beautiful kitty?” Progressively, she got bolder and bolder, as he let her scratch and stroke his neck and shoulders. They even began playing, when he tried to knock her off with his head, and she tried to kiss him on his nose, which made him sneeze. His sneezing made her laugh and hug his neck.

But suddenly, in a split second, the jaguar jumped on his feet and bared his impressive fangs. Sienna did not even have a chance to realize what made the animal so angry until she saw Drogo.

“Ah, there you are!” The vampire was not stupid to approach an angry animal, he stopped at the edge of the visible path and put his hands into pockets. “I was worried for you, and there you are putting your head into a jaguar’s maw. If he starts eating you, call me to say goodbye.” And he nonchalantly strolled away, secretly praying for the animal not to smell his tension.

The jaguar remained angry for quite a while afterwards, then he licked his nose and jumped on a tree, where he chose another thick branch and began observing the surroundings.

Sienna sighed and carefully began climbing the tree. The jaguar did not seem to mind.

She awoke in the morning light from a ticklish feeling of a huge wet abrasive tongue licking her ear.

She opened her eyes and saw herself lying in a cradle of intertwined lianas and branches high above the ground, a huge brown-black jaguar with reddish marks on his sides was washing his hide and adding her head to the scope of his “to wash” list. The beast was acting businesslike, and Sienna began worrying.

“Sebastian, the camp will soon need your attention. Do you understand it?”

The jaguar looked at her and reluctantly turned away. His shortish tail beat discontentedly.

Sienna sighed and tried to scratch under his ear, but the animal shook his head, visibly unwilling to make contact.

Suddenly having an idea, the girl looked at him inquisitively and began climbing down the tree. It was quite a feat, but when she finally succeeded, she made a few dozen steps toward the camp and, making sure the jaguar was watching her, lowered her pants, squatted and peed on the ground.

The jaguar smelled her odor and in one fluid motion eagerly jumped off the tree, attentively watching the girl. She pulled her pants back on and began walking toward the camp, beckoning the animal to follow.

Thus, they walked for almost a mile until the camp became visible through the foliage. The jaguar suddenly stopped, and no amount of Sienna’s pleadings could make him move any further.

The animal began sniffing the air and then went to the right, parallel to the line of human habitation. Sienna chose to follow him, but at some point, lost him in the undergrowth. Having walked mechanically in the same direction for some time, she unexpectedly saw Sebastian pulling on his pants near a tree trunk.

The man smiled at her shyly and proceeded to put on his boots and shirt.

She approached him carefully, smiling hesitantly and watched him switching on his radio and clipping it to his belt. When he finished dressing, he looked at her and smiled the same shy smile again, spreading his arms in a gesture that said: “See? That’s how it is…”

She carefully touched his pectoral with the same fascination she had for his animal counterpart, her eyes trying to take in all the details of his physique. His piercing stare mesmerized her, as she could now see both the jaguar and the man in it. Having recognized her “kitty”, she smiled tenderly and felt his strong arms enveloping her waist in a delightful embrace. He tenderly kissed her on the lips, his animal eyes still studying her. Finally, their color changed to his usual clear, green-blue aquamarine, and the man murmured, smiling:

“Good morning, baby.”

Sienna stroked his torso avidly, her palms gliding on his hard muscles with relish.

“Wow. I could never imagine that your… animal form is so… awesome!”

Sebastian’s lips curled into a playful grin. He was looking at her hungrily.

“Don’t stroke me like this, baby, or my animal will wake up…”

Sienna grinned, blushing, and said, stuttering and avoiding his gaze:

“Well, I wouldn’t probably mind… Last time it was a bit… unexpected, and I was almost scared, but it would be… interesting…”

The man laughed merrily, lowered his gaze to point out at his crotch.

“I was referring to this animal, baby.”

The girl narrowed her eyes and cast him a flirty gaze.

“And I was referring to making love to a jaguar…”

He bit his lower lip and began stroking her body with strong broad strokes.

“Don’t push me, Sienna. I haven’t been alone with you for a long time.”

Unexpectedly, he let her see his stare of the jaguar: a very direct, powerful, demanding stare that went straight to her soul and made her legs wobbly.

Under his insistent strokes, her body began sending her urgent signals, and her labia began pushing against her panties.

The proximity of the camp worried the girl, but when the man turned her away from him and pressed her back to his rock-hard abdomen, all concerns about the camp evaporated from her head, replaced by shivers triggered by his hot breath in her ear.

His forceful rubbing and squeezing of her body always had a magical effect on her, his commanding air making her melt, his palm tormenting her breasts making her mouth water, his hand sliding down her tummy making her arch her torso.

He growled and lowered her pants just enough to bare her buttocks. From the corner of her eye, she saw him pulling his sleeping bag out of the tree trunk. The sleeping bag was thrown on the ground, she heard him unzip his own pants, and the man pushed her face down, entering her as soon as she touched the sleeping bag. His heavy body pressing her down and his hips powerfully thrusting his cock inside her made her pant and moan and arch her body, trying to skewer herself even further.

The animalistic simplicity and raw power of their act aroused the girl to the point of totally losing all inhibitions. In such a state she would soon start begging him to bite her and fantasizing about fountains of sperm, which he, of course, was refusing to give her. She did not understand how he could come without ejaculating, but nonetheless, his bright orgasms always left her completely satisfied. She adored the open, vulnerable expression on his face when he was abandoning himself to the sensations. This time though, his moans and hot breath on her cheek worked just as well.

“Oh yes, baby, yes!” she panted breathlessly, trying to press his head even tighter to hers with her free hand when she felt him finally reaching the frenzied rhythm that was leading them to the bright peak.

The convulsions made them press against each other spastically, in an almost crushing embrace.

Then his squashing hug softened, and he began showering her side of the head and cheek with tender kisses.

He sighed and turned her over to be able to look into her eyes.

“I miss the time we could spend alone…”

She nodded.

“Me too. I don’t know what to do with Drogo. I understand his desire to be there when we make love but often, I just want to be with you.”

Sebastian sighed.

“Well, that’s a threesome for you. There are drawbacks. On the other hand, he keeps us a bit apart, which does not let us fuck to death…” he silently laughed and stroked Sienna’s hair. “Now, it’s high time to get a breakfast. I’m starving!”

Sienna kissed him one last time and pushed him away.

“You go ahead, I’ll go take a shower first…” then she hesitated and asked: “So, what’s about this Diane…?”

Sebastian sighed and gave her a direct sincere stare.

“If there were no you, I would probably be living with her. She would blackmail me with her pussy and try to rule me, and I would probably comply. And you…” he leaned to her and stroked her cheek, “…nothing and no one can compare to you. You are for me like the jungle is to a jaguar. A place where he can be alive. You are not just a woman to me, Sienna. You are my other half.” He said it simply, without posing, matter-of-factly, and put his hands under her shoulders. “When I first started observing you, I could not put my finger on what made you so different from other beautiful young women of your age, but when we danced at the Hoot’s Hooves after the day at the dig site, I got it. While others behave based on social norms or their own pre-installed misconceptions, you remain alive, present, aware of yourself, of your own feelings and of your surroundings, you act with an open heart where others try to manipulate and scheme, where others have no self-awareness, taking their misconceptions instead for the self. When you spoke to me so openly about your interest in me, I felt like a dumbass, speaking platitudes and being so prudent and small… You act out of your own free will, your genuine interest, not imposed restrictions, and it strikes awe in me. It makes your life very different from others’ lives, but it makes it so wonderfully yours…” He laughed sincerely. “I could speak about you for hours, little Buddha.”

She smiled at him gently.

“You know, if not for you and others who support me, I would be unable to remain like this for long. I’m thriving because of you.”

***

Their dance training became very popular, so popular, in fact, that Sebastian found himself buggered by a host of fans eagerly demanding dance classes.

After agreeing with Sienna, he ceded to the popular demand and began teaching his students the basics of dance. Naturally, he was aware that his students were there only to dance with him, to touch him, to share if only a spark of complicity that he was demonstrating toward Sienna. And he gave it to them in abundance.

Drogo, on the other hand, made it clear from the start that he danced only with Sienna and only because she asked him to. He was glad to see that Sebastian, at least to an untrained eye, behaved with other dance partners much in the same way as with Sienna, making all of them fall for him. It pleased the vampire both because it meant that the professor was out of his hair for at least the duration of the class and because it provided Dr. Jones additional barrier against rumors concerning Sienna. Not that he cared for the professor, obviously.

After demonstrating another pirouette with Sebastian, Sienna approached Drogo, grinning a conspiratorial smile. She did not have to turn back to see the students assaulting Dr. Jones.

She stood next to the vampire, leaning on him, their arms entwined on each other’s waists. The girl put her head on her friend’s shoulder and smiled tenderly:

“He looks like a grown-up boy, don’t you think? All the joy and sincerity of a child and all the charm and experience of a wise adult… He is so alive!”

Drogo sighed deeply.

“Are you trying to play the matchmaker, little thing? I’m telling you now, I’m not going to suck his dick any time soon!”

Sienna laughed.

“Silly! I was just drooling over him, that’s all! I like watching him interact with others, it really gives me an insight into his personality…”

“Over which you are continuously drooling since day 1!” added Drogo tartly. He was more teasing than annoyed, having come to terms with such state of things. But he continued in the same displeased voice: “Certainly, there are no other subjects to discuss with me!”

She lightly shoved him with her elbow.

“Hey, I’m trusting you with my biggest secrets!”

Drogo looked at her with an ironic stare:

“I’m not your lesbian friend Sarah to share little girly secrets with!”

The girl gasped and rolled her eyes. The fact was, she totally forgot about Sarah. Sienna reminisced about Nicolas a few times, missed little Lorie a bit, but Sarah was never on her mind, even if Sienna felt a little guilty for enjoying the trip without her friend. But then, she began doubting whether Sarah wanted to be on the expedition because she loved archaeology or because her friend wanted to spend more time around her…

“I’m not sure I would tolerate her meddling in my life here. She became increasingly clingy lately,” sighed Sienna, rubbing her itchy nose against Drogo’s shirt. The latter just smiled, endeared:

“You’re such a piggy at times, little thing! Let me wipe your nose properly…”

The girl tried to turn her face away from him:

“It was just an itch, it passed!”

Drogo laughed softly and pulled her face by the chin toward him again:

“Then I’ll use it for other purposes…” and he kissed her tenderly on the nose, the eyes, cheeks, forehead, and ended his excursion on the very corner of her lips.

“Aaaah! It’s so sweet it makes me nauseous!” Samantha was just on time with her illustrious comments.

Sienna laughed tiredly.

“What would the world do without your opinions, dear Sam! Watch out, because you’re becoming predictable!”

Drogo eyed Samantha in a bad way.

“Sammy, you are talking so often about nausea and vomiting that I have to ask you: are you pregnant? Or, more precisely, when are you due?”

“Oh!” that was a low blow, and Samantha could not devise a reply right away. She turned almost purple and retorted: “Hah! With all that time **_you’re_** spending on smooching, you ought to have some results by now, but maybe you need some help from Dr. Jones?”

Drogo laughed derisively and made the sound of a plane crash.

“Ah, Sammie, maybe you need to read a book on how to compose witty phrases or something? Because this was so dull!”

Sienna sighed, stretched, and yawned.

“All righty, have fun here, guys. I’m gonna do something more interesting than bickering.”

And she went to professor Gutierrez.

She found the woman watching the dance class and type something on her laptop.

“Dr. Gutierrez? Maria?”

The woman’s face brightened.

“Ah, Sienna! How may I help you?”

“I wanted to ask you whether you found something in the pit. Since this place gave me such a fright, I would like to go there with the right equipment and study it.”

Gutierrez smiled and nodded.

“Of course, I understand. Well, we did not pay much attention to it, but Dr. Jones went there and said there were a few bones. Since our priority is the temple, we decided to let the pit rest for the time being. But if you feel the need to go there, then let’s do it tomorrow morning.”

Sienna nodded and grinned.

“Thank you, Maria!”

Sienna barely stepped out from under the shed where Dr. Gutierrez sat working when she bumped into Esteban.

“Hello, gorgeous!”

His smarmy grin made Sienna sick. She sighed.

“Buenas, Esteban.”

The man beamed.

“Ah! You are learning Spanish! Nice! You can say to me a simple “Hola,” “Buenas” to Sebastian and “Buenas noches” to señora Gutierrez.”

Sienna laughed, amused by the guide’s cheekiness.

“You mean to say I have to say “Buenas” to the man I sleep in one tent with, and “hola” to… **_you_**?”

Esteban, unperturbed, made a flourished gesture.

“Hah! Mi querida, he is your teacher, and I am your friend!”

Sienna rolled her eyes.

“Esteban. You are not my friend, I barely know you.”

The guide made the face of a hurt kid.

“Que pasa, mi querida, did I say something? Sebastian is my friend, and his friends are my friends as well!”

Sienna frowned. This was often a cultural problem. In some cultures, people who barely knew you for five minutes got chummy and suddenly wanted to follow you everywhere. But, remembering Sebastian’s tantrum, and how Esteban was behaving with other people at the camp, she somehow doubted it was purely a cultural phenomenon. She grinned.

“You know, Esteban, Diane Holz is also Sebastian’s friend. She is beautiful, single, and upset right now. I think she would appreciate it if someone supported her…”

Esteban shook his head and clacked his tongue.

“Ah, yes, a very sad girl. I feel for her. But I was wondering if you could teach me a dance, maybe? And I would teach you some local dance moves…”

Sienna yawned theatrically and nodded:

“Yes, that’s a good idea, Esteban. I’ll think about it. And now buenas noches!” she smiled to him and purposefully walked away.

***

Meanwhile, Drogo got rid of Samantha, having simply scared her to death, and went hunting. He was feeling tired of having to wear a social mask all day, he was feeling wild, strong, and swift like a wind. Abandoning the camp that smelled like a fast-food court to him, the vampire whizzed into the jungle, letting himself go to the max of his abilities, and soon, the whole jungle knew of a new predator, a white threat unleashed on its inhabitants.

Sebastian stopped in mid-sentence, absent-mindedly nodded to his student’s remark, and smelled the air. There was distress in the jungle. He found Sienna with his eyes, caught her gaze, and made a small gesture telling her that she should watch out. Then he excused himself from the crowd of his groupies and hurried to his hideaway tree trunk.

When he was almost undressed, Sienna caught up with him and quietly asked:

“What’s wrong?”

He sighed.

“The jungle tells of a threat. A white threat. I cannot let Drogo trash this place.”

The girl gasped.

“Please don’t go there! He will kill you!”

Sebastian shook his head.

“I must, Sienna. And I’m not as defenseless as you might think.”

The girl fell to her knees and outstretched her hands toward him.

“Please! I beg you! Not this! I will not survive without you!”

Her cheeks went wet with tears.

Sebastian dropped to his knees in front of her and wiped her cheeks, but abundant tears were running out of her eyes all the same. He used his soothing voice:

“Sienna, listen to me. These woods gave me life so that I can protect them. I am the guardian of this jungle, and when it calls, I must go. Don’t worry, I’m much stronger than the average jaguar, I am the guardian-spirit if you will. As long as I am here, I can fear no vampire. You were right in your research. Jaguars and Tears of Blood are connected. I’ll tell you more tomorrow. Okay?”

The girl was clutching at his wrists, unable to let him go, sheer panic in her eyes.

“Breathe, my baby, breathe. In… and out… in… and out… in… and out… I’ll be back, I promise you.”

Sienna clenched her teeth.

“Don’t promise me anything. Just come back. If you don’t, I will just jump into that pit without any rope, you hear me?”

Sebastian nodded, his eyes shiny with emotion. He bumped his forehead on hers, much in the way of his animal counterpart, then eased himself out of his pants, and disappeared in the underbrush.

The girl sniffled, wiped her eyes, found the sleeping bag, and crouched in it, determined to wait as long as it takes.

***

In a dream, she felt Sebastian’s lips tenderly kissing her, and it woke her up. It was nighttime, but the jungle was somehow muted, its usual sounds dampened with an eerie… presence.

Without quite understanding what she was doing, Sienna scrambled to her feet and went where she was feeling a tug. The tug led her for several miles by animal paths into the heart of the forest, sometimes trying her skills, at others letting her run or trot, but always there, always prodding her onward.

When she entered a rocky opening, where the lush greens could not reach, she instantly saw them. Two bodies, one with black hair and the other with white, lying in a pool of dark fluid. Totally caught with this gruesome sight, she almost missed a smallish figure standing a bit aside. It turned out to be a man with feathers in his headdress, his eyes burning like coals. He was dispassionately observing the scene.

Sienna let him stare and hurried to check the vitals of both men.

They were alive but unconscious, their wounds oozing blood.

The girl tried to wake them up, but they had no reaction. Somehow, she made the connection to the silent figure watching her.

“Release them!” she exclaimed in a commanding voice, but it was like talking to a brick wall.

The man looked at her with his coal-like eyes, and a dry smile appeared on his lips. Barely visibly, he shook his head and made a light gesture. Sienna turned to see the two lying men and saw to her horror that their transparent silvery doubles rose up, while their bodies were left on the ground.

“No! That’s not what I meant!” she hurled herself at the small man with such a fury that it could propel him to the moon. But the man just looked at her with a mild surprise and resumed staring at the silvery forms. Something in the way how they stood gave Sienna a feeling of such might, supporting her back, that when she turned to the man and ordered him: “Leave them alone! We are together, they are my wings!” he looked shaken and surprised, but in a good way. He cackled and nodded to her.

She woke up with a start in Sebastian’s sleeping bag at the edge of the woods. The sky was already pale, but there was still no sun. The jungle stood quiet and felt clean, like after torrential rain. She heard some rustling, then she saw the white figure of Drogo walking slowly toward her. She jumped up, her stiff body wobbly, her eyes searching for Sebastian. A black jaguar emerged from the underbrush, nervously licking his nose, his eyes keeping away from her direct stare. Both, the jaguar and the man, were dirty, with streaks of caked mud and blood on their bodies, but other than that they looked oddly content. The jaguar dropped on the ground and began washing his hide like a regular housecat, while Drogo approached Sienna and squatted in front of her, his eyes weary, calm, and very tender.

He stroked her cheek and smiled at her.

“You are one fearsome fury, my little thing. Next time I’ll be sure not to anger you!”

Sienna frowned.

“Someone care to explain what happened?”

Drogo shook his head.

“Not me. I barely understand what Jones did to me back in the Mystic Spell. If you can make him talk, I’ll be happy to hear that too… Now I need a shower. I’m sure I can leave you to your kitty.”

And he left the girl with the jaguar.

For a while, she just watched him wash himself, but he was too preoccupied to pay any attention to her.

Then the animal looked at her, sighed, rose to his paws, and disappeared in the bushes. After a couple of minutes, Sienna heard retching and stood up. Sebastian appeared from the undergrowth, spitting and trying to fish something out of his mouth.

“Damn hairballs,” he grumbled, shaking his whole body. He was still dirty, and Sienna offered:

“Why don’t you stay here, and I will bring you some water to wash yourself?”

Sebastian smiled.

“Eh, just take my clothes and go to the showers, I’ll meet you there.”

She shrugged her shoulders, took out his clothes, stuffed the sleeping bag in the hideaway, and went to the showers.

In a few minutes, Sebastian poked his face out of one of the cabins, having squeezed inside from the other side.

“Care to rub my back?” he grinned at the girl.

“And freeze my ass off? No, thanks!”

The first one to leave the showers was Drogo. He approached her, grinning, and whispered conspiratorially:

“So, you’ll be the only one dirty in our tent?”

And darted out of her way. But Sienna merely grumbled:

“I’ll be the one soundly sleeping at last!”

The vampire laughed softly and said: “Fair enough!” backing away from her toward their tent.

They managed to take a nap before the camp awakened, but there was no time left for talking, and the trio went for breakfast.

Samantha glared at Drogo and made herself scarce, Dr. Gutierrez smiled at Sienna and approached Dr. Jones.

“Yesterday, Sienna told me that she wanted to go into the pit to study the remains on its bottom. Is it okay with you?”

Jones looked at Sienna, his brow raised.

“The pit, eh? Again?” he shook his head. “Well, if it gives you some peace of mind… Maria, you may do as you deem necessary, this is your team. Just make sure she goes there with an experienced partner…”

Sienna stirred.

“I want to do it alone!”

Jones studied her face. Then he softly explained:

“That’s for the sake of the artifacts. Dr. Gutierrez may agree for you to go there first, on condition that you touch nothing, and then send someone who will help you study the bottom. Are you okay with that?”

Sienna grinned.

“You’re the best!”

Jones smiled, nodded to his colleague, and was instantly whisked away by another crew member.

Going deeper and deeper into the complete cold and damp darkness made Sienna’s breathing labored.

She heard Dr. Gutierrez’ voice in her earpiece:

“Keep calm, Sienna. The pit is deep, you’ll need some time to get to the bottom.”

However trivial the information, her boss’s voice reassured the girl and calmed her pulse.

At last, the girl’s headlamp hit something below her, and she understood that the bottom was nearing. She signaled the rope operator to slow down and turned horizontally in her harness not to touch anything of value. But the floor, studded with stalagmites like a hedgehog, was merciless to its victims. The ever-present water puddles were thoroughly destroying any biological materials and corrupting metals. Some colorless underground life was scuttering away from the girl, and the overall sight was dismal.

“Are you ready for some company?” asked Dr. Gutierrez, and Sienna, being absorbed with her study, shivered with surprise.

“Give me another five minutes, please. I want to try to walk here…”

“Okay, just don’t unlatch your harness!”

Sienna carefully touched the ground, making sure not to step on anything, and made a few cautious steps forward. The pit was long and narrow. It went somewhere into darkness far beyond the precarious boulder above her head, undulating like a corridor.

Sienna cleared her throat.

“Maria, I could be wrong, but this cave may be leading to the lowest parts of the temple… it sure stretches that way. Perhaps it’s worth looking into it?”

She heard Dr. Gutierrez consulting with someone, then she said:

“I’m sending someone to assess your hypothesis, don’t stray too far.”

Sienna made the most of the time alone to study the remains near her and tried to find other traces of perished victims of the fall, but she found herself irresistibly drawn in the direction of the temple, she even discerned something quite like a path with ancient broken stalagmites.

Another light was nearing her from above, and she saw a man assuredly descending into the pit.

“Hello, darkness!” he said in a familiar voice, and Sienna winced. It was Esteban. She could only hope that the pest would not try to hit on her under the circumstances.

Several minutes later, he landed on the ground with an annoying triumphant fanfare, absolutely oblivious to the surroundings.

“Hola, mi querida!” he displayed a full-mouth smile and winked to the girl. “Don’t you appreciate that we’ll be having a special moment alone?”

The girl grinned.

“More like a special moment with my boot up your… jaw. But yes, it will be very special.”

Esteban, absolutely unperturbed, laughed and said:

“All right, time to get down to business!”

Having cast a cursory look at the remains, he commented for both Dr. Gutierrez and Sienna:

“Nothing of value. We might note their location and describe the discernible components, but that’s it. Over the centuries, many creatures have fallen here in the darkness, and it doesn’t look like a special sacrificial site. Just accidental victims. Proceeding down the path…”

They left a heavy-duty lamp near the ropes and carefully went down the barely visible trail deeper into the bowels of the mountain.

In about twenty minutes their connection with the technician broke, and they had to turn back for instructions.

Dr. Gutierrez was adamant:

“Leave it alone, we will soon finish the upmost section of the temple and will reach its bottom in due time. If the trail goes that far, we will see it. Return home.”

Esteban sighed.

“Eh, such a short time in such precious company!”

Sienna was not happy with the order but assumed that she could renegotiate the decision with Dr. Jones and turned back to return to their guiding lamp.

Esteban tried to discern her face without turning his head to flood her with the lamplight and asked in an oddly docile voice:

“Why unhappy, preciosa?”

Sienna shrugged her shoulders.

“Maybe it’s nothing. I just feel curious about going further…”

Esteban knowingly raised his index finger.

“Curiosity killed a cat, so they say! Don’t worry, we have tons of other very curious stuff to do!”

Sienna sighed.

“It will nag me…”

Esteban switched off his mike and asked her in a seductive voice:

“And what if we return here after our daily scope of work is done?”

The girl looked completely horrified at the grinning hermano.

“That’s a bad idea. And it starts like a cheap horror movie where people begin acting irresponsibly in a treacherous environment.”

Esteban screwed up his face.

“What’s so treacherous about this cave? Do you know, mi querida, in how many caves I’ve been in my time?”

Sienna curved her brow.

“Have you been to this one?”

“No, but…”

“Then it’s pointless to argue. You said that the remains are just piles of worthless junk, and I saw there badly damaged bracelets and feathers. Maybe that’s not a ritual site, but someone surely wanted to get to the temple in the past…”

Esteban shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe. Doesn’t change much in the big picture.”

The girl shrugged too and mumbled:

“There is no big picture without small ones.”

***

The day turned out to be tumultuous, and Sienna crawled inside their tent when its other inhabitants were already soundly snoring.

Sebastian stirred and put his arm onto the girl’s torso.

“How was the pit?” he mumbled.

Sienna smiled and kissed his cheek.

“We’ll talk about it in the morning, sleep tight, baby.”

Drogo’s hand from the other side of her stroked her waist, and the girl turned to him.

“I woke you up?” she asked in a barely audible whisper and understood that he shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, sweetness, I’ll sleep better knowing you’re here.”

The girl closed her eyes and found herself on the path to the temple.

She wanted to go there, but there were hot-coal eyes looking at her from the darkness.

They were forbidding and unyielding, and the girl understood something. On their way down, there will be sacrifices.

***

She awoke to the radio chitchat and screeching. Jones was already hurriedly putting on clothes. His hastiness made Sienna remember the dream. She chose the quickest way to get his attention and grabbed him by the shirt.

“Jones, listen to me!” she made sure that he stopped buttoning the shirt and cast her a surprised glance. “Proceed very carefully. There will be victims!”

He studied her face carefully and nodded.

“I hear you, my love. The pit spoke to you, I see. Thank you for the warning!”

He kissed her on the cheek and rushed out of the tent.

The girl looked at Drogo and pleaded:

“Please don’t let him near the lower temple!”

The vampire nodded and began dressing. When putting on his jeans, he turned his head to the dressing girl and said:

“But truth be told, your presence will be more efficient than mine…”

She energetically shrugged her shoulders and exclaimed sarcastically:

“Hah! He will just say ‘I must go!’ and there is no amount of pleading or tears that could stop him!”

Drogo thought it over and nodded.

“Looks like him…”

***

When the pair got to the command point, their friend was calmly talking with his colleagues and pointing at something on the monitor.

Sienna held out a mug of coffee and a sandwich to him, which he took with a curt nod, continuing to talk:

“…so, with all twists and turns it shouldn’t be more than two – two and a half kilometers. I’ll take Bartoli and Richards with me. There is no communication inside, so once there, we’ll install a beacon at the farthest possible point of connection…”

“How much time do you give us until we start looking for you?” asked Dr. Robert Darcos, their third colleague, a small wiry man with thinning golden curls on his head, thin crooked nose, thin lips, and almost absent chin. He looked like a birdy, but a clever glint in his watery eyes hinted at the well-known fact that appearances can be deceiving.

Sebastian looked at Sienna and Drogo appraisingly, took a bite of his sandwich, glanced at his watch, and answered:

“Three hours, give or take.”

Dr. Darcos raised his brows and puffed up his cheeks.

“You know, that’s a bit too much! Two kilometers, even in a stalagmite cave, are still two kilometers, unless…” he stopped himself and doubtfully looked at the pair of students, “…unless you just want to waste your time on something…”

Dr. Jones calmly shrugged his shoulders, the corners of his mouth curling in an ironic smile, and gave a direct stare to his colleague.

“You listen to too many rumors, Bob. A cave is a cave, I don’t have to tell you what could go wrong there. And I’m taking the most reliable people there because I know them well. I know what they are capable of. And, excuse me, but no other people in this camp can perform things that they will do in a blink of an eye.”

Drogo stood there, arms crossed on his chest, and proudly grinning. He was immensely amused by the discussion. Sienna, on the other hand, stood sulking. She even went so far as interrupt the professor:

“It seems that something was lost in translation when I said ‘don’t go there’! And there you are, planning exactly the opposite!”

When Dr. Jones turned to her, his eyes were so piercing that the girl shuddered.

“Then you will not go, miss Richards. If you don’t want to, no one will force you. And I have a responsibility toward all these people. There are things that only I can do before I decide it’s safe for others to follow. You may join Dr. Gutierrez,” and he turned away from her, sipping his coffee.

Sienna stood there rooted to the spot, her ears and cheeks burning. Her jaws clamped, she glared at Jones furiously, when Drogo’s cool hands pulled her back and turned her to face him.

He caught the girl’s gaze and whispered to her soothingly:

“Never doubt the man’s authority in front of his colleagues. He is responsible for many people here, it’s his territory, his decisions. He acts upon your information, don’t doubt it. It’s just that he decides to act and not avoid danger. I’m sure he doesn’t do it blindly. And now, if you don’t want to be replaced by your friend Samantha, go talk to him.”

Drogo said it just in time because Jones turned to an aid standing by and said to him:

“Find me miss Gautier.”

Sienna stirred and jumped forward.

“Don’t! Please don’t call Samantha! I’ll go. I’m sorry for doubting you, Dr. Jones.”

Jones turned to her, gestured to the aid to hold on, and studied her with an assessing gaze.

Then he came up close to her and, still fixing her with his lucid eyes, murmured barely audibly in a voice he reserved for personal interaction:

“Do you understand what just happened? We are not in the bedroom here, and I need a reliable partner, not a lover. If you go with me, may I be sure that you will do as I say?”

The girl, blushing like a peony, nodded.

“Yes, sure… Until I find you next time unconscious and covered in blood.”

Unexpectedly, Sebastian merrily laughed, bit on the sandwich, turned away from her, and said out loud:

“All right. Let’s give it a try. Get ready, everyone, the descent is in ten.”

People began dissipating.

Having put an empty mug on the table, Sebastian took Sienna by the arm and pulled her aside.

“Sienna, this is the second time you slap me in the face in public, even if it was metaphoric this time! Do you understand that apart from your dream, I have access to some other information, that I have much more experience than you do in the field, and that you are damaging my authority, which means you sap people’s trust in me? Remember I asked you to support me? I still need that. I need you to believe in me! I don’t know what you thought you saw that night in the jungle, but I assure you that we were not in danger from the shaman. He was just… balancing… energies… Indeed, he saw that you cared deeply for us, and he let you express your fear and terror… But remember, things are not always what they seem to be. You just see the contents of your subconscious. To see otherwise, you must have… training. Do you understand? If this happens again, I’ll be forced to separate you from all my social activities, is that clear?”

She frowned but nodded.

“Yes. I’ll have to do something about that terror of losing you. I’ll find a therapist in Mystic Spell upon our return.”

Sebastian shrugged his shoulders, deflating.

“Or just go to Nicolas. I bet he is not only a good masseur.”

Sienna narrowed her eyes. She was boiling again:

“Now that’s an excellent time to bring him up!”

Jones frowned.

“As good time as any. You demonstrated it well this morning.”

Sienna screwed up her face.

“With this attitude, we cannot go down to the pit any time soon!”

Jones, still frustrated, grumbled:

“This should be my line.”

She looked at him askance.

“Will you train me? To see the truth?”

The man frowned.

“It takes years of practice and all your rats sorted out…”

She crooked her brow a bit playfully.

“Are you planning on going away any time soon?”

The man scoffed, put his arms akimbo, and bent his head backward, completely surrendered.

“Oh my god, I’m screwed with this girl!” he laughed with self-irony, then straightened up, and began moving away. “Be ready in five.”

The cold and damp darkness readily engulfed the three explorers.

Jones examined the field of bones in more detail than he did before, and said aloud for the sake of technicians:

“Esteban’s assessment was not entirely correct. This IS a sacrificial site, they just designed a trap that would bring in unaware victims, a sort of automatic sacrifices in the absence of caretakers…”

Dr. Gutierrez’ voice in the earpiece was impassive:

“Any indicative signs?”

Jones went around the perimeter of the site and let the camera see what he saw.

The voice in the earpiece coolly responded:

“Duly noted, Dr. Jones. You may proceed further.”

The twenty minutes until the connection loss passed smoothly, with Jones making a few remarks here and there for the record. When the connection broke into static, they paced back and installed a bright beacon, visible for hundreds of yards ahead.

After that, they proceeded further, more cautiously.

In a few hundred steps, Sebastian broke the silence by checking the connection again, made sure there was none, and said:

“I promised to explain to you about the jaguars and… bloodsuckers,” both his partners sharply turned their heads toward him. “You, Sienna, were correct to assume that there was a link between them. ‘Yahuar’ or ‘jaguar’ indeed means ‘blood’ or ‘of blood’, you had it right, jaguars were held sacred, and it’s no coincidence…” he paused, thinking about how best to word what he was about to say. “Thing is… if the ritual is properly conducted, then the blood of the jaguar ‘guardian-spirit’, or, simply saying, one such as me is consumed by the ruler, and he acquires the powers and longevity of… of our friend here. Such ruler would have to consume blood from time to time, but in the pre-Colombian environment, it happened when these rulers went to war and consumed the blood of their fallen enemies, which was quite often,” he paused again, giving his interlocutors time to digest what he was telling. “Mind you, they didn’t kill the jaguar, they just asked him to give some of his blood, so don’t look at me, Drogo. The trick is, if blood is taken by force, it is considered a sacrilege, the creature that drank it becomes damned and has to subsist on blood alone, the blood of jaguars becoming poison to it…”

Drogo narrowed his eyes.

“So, you mean to say that our dark father is damned?”

Sebastian nodded.

“Most certainly. Many of those craving immortality are prepared to storm heaven itself to get what they want. As far as I can gather, your father is a very power-hungry individual, unscrupulous enough to violate any sacred rite.”

The vampire stirred.

“Then what did happen to me… in Mystic Spell?”

Sebastian sighed heavily, not sure how to explain it.

“I… accepted you. I saw how much you loved Sienna and I just could not deny you such a strong and pure feeling. So, basically, this feeling redeemed the sin of your father. All guardian-spirits are essentially one being, and thus, by allowing you to be, this… collective spirit agreed to you having its blood in your veins… But since you got it through the sacrifice of your life, we had to honor this sacrifice and give you a chance to be reborn… That’s essentially how I gather what happened…”

Drogo walked in silence for good five minutes, his eyes deeply pensive, before he asked:

“So… then… I’m not really a vampire anymore?”

Jones sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

“I can barely understand it as well, but… I truly do not know what to make of you. When you went on that wild rampage in the jungle, the Guardian Priest mingled our blood further, so, maybe he just finished what I began in Mystic Spell. Do you feel the thirst these last days? Do people attract you as food, do they smell like food to you?”

Drogo thought about it and slowly shook his head.

“Less so… Does that mean that I am… alive?!” Something flashed in his eyes. He suddenly exclaimed: “Little thing, do you take pills?!”

She was startled at first, then gasped and nodded.

“Just in case. I cannot trust Jones on that.”

Sebastian sighed and muttered: “Like in everything else…”

Drogo explained, his face reflecting how deeply perturbed he was: “I thought I was mistaken last time… I felt… something happening… to my tool… It’s just such a forgotten feeling that I could not be sure…”

Sebastian covered his face with his palms and muttered: “Oh god…” He rubbed his face in exasperation and added under his breath: “This will never end…!”

Sienna stopped and looked at men with a bewildered air.

“Ok, daddies. Now you are telling me that both of you… Damn.”

She turned away from them and tousled her hair.

Then she turned back to them and asked them directly:

“Will you two alphas be able to handle it if one of you… if… oh god… if I bear one of yours’ baby?”

Both men shifted uneasily, trying to find a truthful answer to that question.

Drogo winced and finally replied:

“It will be ok if you promise to bear another one from the other one of us.”

The girl scoffed incredulously, but then she saw the expressions on men’s faces and understood that they were serious about it. She flung up her hands in dismay.

Sebastian said softly:

“Since all three of us are bound together in this situation, I don’t see any other solution. If you choose not to have children with us, then it is statistically improbable that we will remain together in the long run, our relationships will simply deteriorate in time. Nature brings men and women together for only one purpose, whether you like it or not. I don’t mean to say that you have to decide now, but it’s just something to bear in mind. Considering our… ah… how active we all are in that department, that’s a prospect to consider.”

The girl moaned desperately.

“I’m too young for that…!”

Drogo shrugged his shoulders and said philosophically:

“That’s all relative. My mom was about fourteen when she had my eldest brother, then she had four more of us, and then she died of consumption…”

Jones shook his head.

“Drogo, don’t scare Sienna…”

The vampire looked at him, scoffing:

“But that’s true! These days people remain infantile well into their thirties or even forties! I’m not talking about you, Doc, but in general. At Sienna’s age, she would be (if we take, say, the middle class) a well-to-do matron with two or three children and a head full of domestic chores…”

Sienna sighed.

“This doesn’t help, Drogo… But I get what you’re leading to. I get the situation, and, if you both do not have anything more to say, let’s proceed to the temple.”

Glumly, they scrambled in the direction of the temple in complete silence for another ten minutes, huffing at obstacles, when, unexpectedly, Sienna and Drogo heard a very low sound…

Sebastian was singing under his breath. “ _Crazy, maybe I’m crazy_ …” He had a pleasant voice and was able to carry a tune.

Sienna looked at him inquiringly.

Drogo looked at her in disbelief.

“I know this song,” he said, closely watching the girl. “Each time I took my car after you’d been there, I heard it. Care to enlighten me?”

But it was Sebastian who replied to him:

“It played on the radio the day I took Sienna to the prospected dig site. Sun shone through her hair and on her face, and she appeared so happy, staring at the landscapes out of the window… It was then that I felt it, but was too afraid to admit it even to myself…”

Sienna could not properly meet his gaze because of the headlamps, but she joyfully smiled and said:

“I thought I was the only one so happy to be in that car…”

Drogo rolled his eyes and grumbled:

“I start to understand Samantha and her lines about nausea!”

Sebastian laughed joyfully, grabbed both people in his arms, and lowered his head to touch Sienna’s cheek.

“We are crazy, guys, that’s the only explanation of how we can coexist in this mad trio…”

The girl laughed lightly:

“I don’t want to dissuade you, but maybe it’s your blood talking? Remember, at first, you both could not stand each other, and it would be normal, Drogo being damned. But since you… since we ‘buried’ Martin, your attitude changed…”

Jones shrugged his shoulders and let them go.

“That’s a possibility.”

Sienna stirred, an odd thought had crossed her mind.

“And what about Transylvanian vampires? I always thought that the legend originated there…”

Sebastian sighed, trying not to slip into his usual mentor manner.

“The Bram Stoker’s version of vampires certainly originated there, but, unfortunately, there are many ways to corrupt nature and its sacred rites… I guess European vampires came to be in a much similar way when rulers, instead of their intended defense of the people function, started to crave power and immortality. A story as old as mankind…”

“But you are… a kind of guardian spirit as well, aren’t you?” asked the girl doubtfully.

The professor shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s not the same thing. I am not immortal, and I guard nature, not people.”

Sienna had a nagging feeling that she was still missing something.

“Does it mean…” she paused, “that you would kill people if you were pushed to do it?”

Sebastian’s eyes softened.

“Nature is much more forgiving than you would think. If I were directly threatened, then yes, certainly, I would defend myself, but otherwise, it’s not so unequivocal. There are many more ways to stop people than just kill them.”

The girl shook her head doubtfully.

“I’m afraid there is still a catch to it…”

The man laughed lightly and patted her on the shoulder.

“Ah, the eternal naysayer! ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy’!”

Sienna fell silent for a minute.

“It made me think about the possibility that there can be different outcomes to very similar situations, not solely the one that made a lasting impression on me… An interesting thought…”

Sebastian did not reply, just glanced at the girl curiously, and Drogo curved his brow, unsure where she led to but never commented as well.

The girl soon waved her hand, drawing their attention.

“Hey guys, it’s over there that I saw the burning eyes in my dream…”

Sebastian’s face instantly reflected his composure.

“All right. If anyone can pass here, it’s me. Then Drogo, then Sienna.”

They silently nodded and proceeded carefully, measuring each step.

Sebastian’s skin rippled with an unpleasant sensation. There was definitely something here.

Suddenly he turned to face his friends and said:

“We shouldn’t be here. This is the domain of the dead.”

Drogo listened to his own feelings and nodded.

“You are right. But I had already crossed this path. I can make a run there and back again. Wait for me.”

And before Jones could protest, Drogo was off into the darkness, his headlamp creating a visible phosphorescent trace.

The two remaining people’s bodies shuddered uncontrollably, obviously not happy to be here, the feeling of imminent death almost strangling them.

“Let’s take a few steps back,” offered Sebastian, trying to control his body.

Sienna shook her head, her teeth clenched.

“He will need us to pull him back,” she muttered. She could not say why she said it, but it felt true.

Interminable ten minutes leaked like blood from a wound, and people were exhausted to fight their panicking bodies.

But suddenly, a whitish figure reappeared, panting, from the darkness. Drogo’s headlamp was broken, he was caked in clay, wet, and shivering. Without saying a word, his friends took him by his elbows and resolutely pulled him back toward the beacon.

When they were well away from the invisible barrier, he finally exhaled, and dropped to his knees, shivering and panting.

His friends, sick with worry, leaned over him.

“We should… blow up… this whole damned place!” he muttered, shivering, without looking at anybody.

They patiently waited until their friend regained his ability for coherent speech and tried their best to clean him up.

At last, Drogo sat on the ground, spitted, and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

He even managed to force a crooked smile.

“Never thought… I never understood… what the heart of darkness could mean…” he paused and made an effort to make a full inhale. “I ended up inside the temple, I think. In its basement. There is nothing there for the living, and not even for semi-dead.”

Sebastian nodded.

“I never thought I would say it, but looks like you’re right…” he looked at his watch. “At least pertaining to living bodies. We have under two hours until people come looking for us…” he thought it over, visibly made some internal decision, and stood up. “All right, let’s get back.”

Sienna gazed at him in surprise.

“I thought you never gave up…”

Sebastian sighed.

“I am a reasonable man, baby. Let’s go.”

***

Sienna realized that she had been holding her breath only when she was half-way up from the darkness into the world of the living, where there was the sun, the jungle, the camp with its people, the world of color and sound and warmth.

Jones looked grim. He asked Drogo to describe the path, but the latter muttered resolutely:

“Just say it’s obstructed. That one cannot get through all the debris to the temple...” And he went to take a shower. Sienna hurried after him, leaving Jones to deal with further instructions to his people.

She squeezed inside the cabin along with Drogo and helped them both out of their clothes. The cool water felt divine, it felt alive, warmed by the sun, and smelled fresh. They helped each other wash away the grime of the caves and its horrors, the man being very grateful for the girl’s presence. They kissed until someone came into the next cabin and started singing out of tune while lathering.

The pair giggled and ran away, clutching their dirty clothes to cover their intimate parts.

Once in the tent, Drogo avidly possessed her, trying to erase the dread of the cave as quickly as possible.

In the middle of the action, Sebastian came to take fresh clothes. He was oddly preoccupied and barely reacted to the scene.

“I think we all deserve a good fun evening tonight, so I’ll ask you, baby, to prepare a playlist, okay?” he asked the panting Sienna, slapped the moving Drogo on the shoulder, and went outside.

The girl’s eyes widened.

“Did he just…?”

Drogo’s brows went up.

“Yep. He just stepped outside.”

Samantha bumped into Dr. Jones right when the action inside his tent became noisier and noisier.

She plastered a fake smile on her face, trying to discern any trace of tension on the professor’s face, but the latter just smiled good-naturedly:

“Young blood needs some relief from the cold and dark of the pit. You are lucky to have escaped the descent.”

The student smiled again, dazzlingly, twisted a lock of hair around her finger and asked playfully:

“Aren’t you joining them, professor?”

Sebastian charmingly smiled at her and off-handedly dismissed her insinuation:

“Miss Gautier, I don’t have time for small-talk, but I hope you’ll join us tonight for a music party? People have worked the whole week hard enough to have a little respite.”

Samantha’s smile became almost predatory.

“Oh, sure I will, professor. I would never refuse your personal invitation!”

Jones nodded to her and left for the shower.

“ _Wherever I’m alone with you_ …” the music undulated like smoke in the night forest, intermingling with the crackling bonfire. Sebastian was dancing with a student, feeling her uneven breath on his chest and hearing her madly pounding heart. Each of his kindly glances made the girl blush like a peony, each time he touched her in different places, her heart rate jumped even higher. When the music stopped, he felt her simultaneous relief and disappointment.

“Thank you for a lovely dance, miss Simmons,” he grinned and bowed, letting the girl know that it was over.

A row of girls stood there, waiting for him to pay attention to them, but the next melody made their beloved professor stir, beam to the Richards girl, and extend his hand toward her.

The latter grinned back and made a triple backflip toward the man. Other students went green with envy.

Sienna landed in the arms of Dr. Jones with such precision that suggested either a crazy amount of training or uncanny coordination. They performed ‘the hellish eight’ in one breath and continued a spellbinding improvisation to the amazement and delight of the whole camp.

Absolutely no one in the cheering crowd could even imagine what went on behind those smiling eyes and that bright smile, behind the live heat of that silky skin… Sebastian was dancing with his beloved one as if for the last time, enjoying every heartbeat, every sigh, every fluttering of lashes. A bit longer… just another tact of the music…

***

The sounds of merrymaking were reaching him deep in the jungle, but he pressed on, clutching a precious artifact under his arm. The moon shimmered on the polished edge of a round object protruding from its wrapping. The obsidian had a convex lens form and was very heavy.

Sebastian rearranged his grip on the obsidian mirror and looked around. The rocky platform was already visible from where he stood, and he hurried there.

The shaman was already waiting for him. The archaeologist silently put the stone mirror in front of him and stepped back.

The shaman frowned and shook his head disapprovingly.

But Jones sat on the ground with determination and crossed his legs.

The small man shrugged his shoulders and, still shaking his head, sat in front of him on the other side of the mirror. From the shadows appeared four more figures and went to sit around the black polished stone in the middle. Six figures stood behind each of the sitting ones, and two more stood behind each of those.

***

The dawn crept up from behind the trees and pooled its light on the rocky plateau, bathing the immobile body in its pink rays.

A fragile butterfly fluttered its wings and sat on the man’s lips. A shudder passed through his body, and the man moved, having scared away the butterfly.

Sebastian opened his eyes and felt life seeping back into his body. He stretched, sighed, and smiled with relish to the skies, to the dawn, and to the surrounding jungle. He inhaled the sweet morning air full of smells of a fresh new day, and his smile broadened.

He carefully sat up and began removing his clothes. Then he peed next to the neat heap and transformed into a huge black jaguar with brownish-red patterns on his coat.

The animal shook his lustrous coat from head to toe and let out a resounding roar, baring his enormous fangs. The whole jungle knew then that its master was back.

***

The boisterous voice of Dr. Jones made a few people cringe. The morning after the party was often not the best time for loud sounds, and even less so for the boss’s commands.

Sienna cracked her eyes open. Luckily, their tent stood in the shade, and it was not yet hot inside.

She gently ruffled Drogo’s hair and kissed him on the forehead.

“Hey, Fruit-Bat, it’s time to wake up…” she murmured, stroking his cheek. “Do you know that you tanned a bit? Now you look much less like a marble statue… And you’ll need to shave…”

He sighed, took her by the hand, and, never opening his eyes, turned to lie on his back.

“Kiss me…” he mumbled sleepily, and Sienna laughed tenderly.

“Are you Sleeping Beauty?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Why not?”

Sienna quietly took his camera and made a few shots of him, his messy hair and disheveled air looking adorable in the morning glow of the tent.

“What are you doing, little thing?” he asked, eyes still closed. “Are you making compromising photos?”

The girl grinned.

“I’m making delightful photos. And you should get up!”

He opened his eyes a crack just to look at her. She caught this moment on camera and giggled happily.

“Now, why would I want to get up, little thing? I’m not as keen as you are about archaeology, and if your dear professor does not ask me specifically to perform some wondrous feat, I’d better go to the jungle… Unless you incite my interest…”

Sienna stretched herself and yawned.

“I don’t know… I wanted to go with the girls to the river… I know it’s not a beach, but still… Only one week left in this paradise…”

Drogo sighed.

“And then… you return to live with… him?”

The girl smiled tenderly and stroked his chest.

***

The girls were giggling, yelling and splashing, having fun and fooling around.

Sienna never worried about her popularity, but, even with the ambiguous situation with the two guys, one of which being the head of the expedition, her good-natured attitude toward others made her many friends.

Enhmaa Dorin was brushing Sienna’s hair with visible pleasure.

“Your hair is so soft and yellow! I wish I had hair like yours!”

Sienna laughed.

“Maybe you wouldn’t believe me, but I envy yours. It’s so strong and lustrous, it reminds me of horse hair, I would love to have such mane!”

Enhmaa giggled.

“That’s why you like Dr. Jones so much? Because he has black hair?”

Both chortled, Sienna smiled like a Cheshire cat, turning pink from delight.

“Oh, he is so powerful… Dancing with him is like dancing with a flame…”

Enhmaa slyly winked at her friend.

“Your Drogo must be an angel!”

Sienna gravely nodded, her face illuminated with a gentle feeling.

“Yes. He is.”

Her friend arched her brow.

“Then what’s Dr. Jones doing, meddling like this?”

Sienna opened her mouth to answer, without really knowing what to say, but next instant, they were splashed with water so heavily that they vigorously jumped up, eager to retaliate, and ran to the shallow water, squealing and shouting.

***

These were the last hours of packing. The next team of archaeologists would come and find everything ready for them.

Sienna was sitting on her stuffed backpack and trying to quell her impatience by drafting an account of her first-ever excavation. It did not go well. Although she did enjoy the trip, patience was not one of her strongest traits, and she would rather be doing something other than drawing up reports. She was eager to travel again, to see new places, new faces, have new impressions.

Both her friends came into view.

Drogo looked tense and preoccupied, Sebastian was businesslike but frowning as well.

They saw her observing them and approached her.

Drogo nodded to Sebastian as if urging him to speak.

The professor sighed and explained to the intrigued girl:

“There is an opportunity to go to Egypt for about 10 days. I’ll need to drop by Cairo to see colleagues, but otherwise, there’ll be no excavations, just a season finale for the three of us…”

He paused and as if on cue, Drogo intervened:

“But I cannot go because I’m needed at the Mystic Spell, for some obscure reason…”

Sienna frowned.

“Are you sure it won’t be dangerous for you after you’ve changed?”

Drogo shrugged his shoulders.

“I have a photo studio, I can always go live there if things turn sour, but I doubt they will. Don’t worry about me, little thing, I’ll do fine, and you can enjoy some alone time with our Dr. Kitty. I’m sure I wouldn’t mind having such an opportunity.”

Sebastian sighed, frowning, and said:

“There will be plenty of other opportunities upon our return. But I would still insist on returning with you just to be on the safe side…”

Drogo looked at Sienna and smiled bitterly.

“Just go already! There is an almost perfect flight from Lima to Cairo through Paris, and it’s booked. I don’t see why you shouldn’t use it…”

Sebastian sighed.

“There is one other thing that Sienna should know before she makes her decision…”

The look of unease on his face intrigued Drogo and worried the girl. The professor continued with an effort:

“I will be unable to take Sienna to my meetings with colleagues. For a number of reasons. But there is one reason in particular that I feel the need to explain…” he was realizing that he should continue at this point, but it took him an additional effort to do so. “One of them is my former… eh… professor… and… more. We spent about six years together, she was much older than me, it was not like the age difference between you and me. Then her health started deteriorating, and she insisted on parting… It was a dark time for me. I begged her but she cut me off, stopped answering my calls… I was totally lost for a time, as she meant a great deal to me, she opened the world to me and showed the way to great discoveries… Then I made up my mind to… make a sense of my life… So here we are now. The invitation came from one of our mutual friends, but as soon as I received it, I was sure that she had to be aware of the invitation…”

Sienna made sure her body was not tense when she asked:

“So that’s why you weren’t adamant against a relationship with a student? It was to make up for her investments into you? Do you still love her?”

She was silently praying that the men, with all their supernatural abilities, could not hear her pounding heart as she was waiting for the answer.

But they were too knowledgeable in girls’ hearts to show that her distress read to them like an open book. Sebastian smiled, stroked her hair, and kissed her forehead.

“Don’t worry. I may be nervous about the upcoming meeting with her, but I most definitely and surely love you, Sienna.”

He said it calmly, out loud, in the middle of a crowded camp, as the most natural thing in the world.

Drogo’s eyes gleamed. He looked at Jones and, trying to ignore Sienna’s relieved sigh, asked him:

“Do you realize what you just said, professor?”

Never leaving the girl from his sight, Sebastian nodded.

“I’ve said it before, it’s no big news.”

The blond man smirked.

“But judging by her reaction, it was to her.”

Sienna, feeling hot in her cheeks, felt like this was a highly inappropriate place for such a discussion, so she cut in lightly:

“Were I to know that sleeping with students is this University’s long-standing tradition, I would have asked you to dance much sooner, dear professor!”

But he did not support her playful tone and asked in a leveled voice:

“So, what do you decide, will you go with me to Egypt?”

The girl cleared her throat, looking for the right attitude under the circumstances, then shrugged her shoulders:

“If Drogo is honest in his assessment of the situation back at home and if your absence will not be noticed on the flight back to Mystic Spell, then sure I want to go there…!” suddenly, she stirred. “But, Sebastian, if another team of archaeologists comes, they will surely find the pathway to the basement of the temple…!”

The professor nodded.

“Don’t worry, they will be fine.”

“No victims?”

“No. I hope not. At least not due to the ancient curse. It’s been… encapsulated… And on the matter with whether our absence will be noticed… I think we are a little beyond that already…”

Drogo laughed.

“Just tell me that I can play with your defenseless kindergarten, Jones! I’m so keen on… ah… chatting with them!”

Sebastian frowned.

“Drogo, this hide and seek game cannot go on forever! Let it be.”

The blond man shook his head slyly, obviously of another mind.

“Not forever, just the five years that the little thing needs to successfully graduate from that asylum you call the University. Five years is not a big time, and I’m willing to cover for this sweet little thing as long as she needs.”

The girl sighed, worried.

“Drogo, I’m all for covering, because I would not forgive myself if the professor gets fired, but are you sure it’s feasible on such a long run?”

The blond man’s laugh was mocking.

“You call it a long run? Really? Try covering up your very nature for a hundred years…! And if something goes wrong, we still have Nicolas,” he grinned, then added, turning to Sebastian: “And you should bear in mind that not only your job is at stake, but Sienna’s reputation as a young specialist as well. So shut up and let me handle the mayhem that you are creating each minute with your animal hormones.”

Sebastian frowned and bit his lip.

“I like neither the idea of you covering for us nor your methods, but it seems that it’s objectively a better way to go than to just send everyone to hell…”

Drogo beamed a crooked grin full of mischief.

“Excellent. But before you, young lovers, escape, first, you’ll suffer a photoshoot at the local airport. A stack of backpacks, haggard looks, sweaty shirts, it’s got to be gold!”

Sebastian scoffed merrily:

“Only you can make something decent out of our sweat and tears!”

Sienna asked Drogo, smiling:

“Did you plan it all along or it just popped into your dirty mind recently?”

The latter cunningly smiled:

“Let’s just say that I was prepared for any eventuality…”

The local airport indeed proved to be a trial. Stuffy, dirty, smelly, and old, it was crammed with people and luggage.

Observing this madhouse, Sienna whispered to Sebastian:

“I half-expect a bunch of llamas sharing the flight with us…”

Jones patted her shoulder and smiled at her with his clear eyes:

“Chill, we just have to wait for our carrier to arrive, it will be much more comfortable than the cargo plane that brought us here since all the crates are left behind on-site…”

Drogo came up to them in a springy step of a man on the mission and, businesslike, sized them up and down.

“You two already look like you’re in the needed condition.”

Sienna retorted grumpily:

“If you are indeed a creature descending from the one who took a jaguar guardian’s blood, why should you look better than the jaguar guardian himself?”

Drogo laughed and winked at her.

“I was partly mummified, remember? Or maybe I just look better than Dr. Kitty here…” he guffawed out loud, then switched tone, handed her a black bracelet and earrings, and told her: “Put this on, little thing. Jones, sit over there on the floor and lean against that mound of backpacks, wear this ring…”

Sebastian put on a massive white metal ring with a scattering of black diamonds and studied it with curiosity.

“Do you realize that you moved a budget of a small town through customs here?”

The vampire snickered.

“I can be persuasive. Now, let Sienna sit next to you and lean on you… put your hand on her shoulder. Switch the ring to this hand… Unbutton your shirt. Sienna, remove earrings, they are superfluous here… Put your hand on his thigh here. Don’t be shy, the bracelet will cover his crotch…”

He was confidently giving them orders and taking shots, never bothering to pay any attention to curious bystanders and students, when Samantha pushed her way to the first row and stood there, her arms crossed at the chest, a silly smirk on her lips, readying herself to spit out some angry bile.

But Drogo, never losing momentum and seemingly still preoccupied with the shoot, turned to her, touched her shoulder, and whispered something in her ear. Instantly, miss Gautier’s face became aloof, she let other people stand in front of her, and then stumbled away, looking bored.

Sebastian used this small hiatus to warn his fellow:

“You do remember that I should not appear in your campaign, don’t you?”

Drogo joyfully grinned:

“But you look so good in pictures! The camera just loves you! It would be such a shame to cut off your head again!”

Sebastian frowned and growled strictly:

“Drogo!”

The latter only laughed and continued shooting, then said appeasingly:

“Relax, it will be very tasteful. Now, I don’t need an angry look. I need something softer, tired, caring… Kiss her on the temple, my little thing won’t mind I’m sure…”

A student following their conversation dared to ask Drogo:

“So it’s true that in your previous ad the second man was Dr. Jones?”

Drogo glanced disdainfully at the student and laughed:

“Hey, pally, don’t you know about the advent of Photoshop, cloning, and such?”

But the student persisted. He frowned and cited Drogo:

“You said it yourself that it would be a shame to cut off his head AGAIN!”

Drogo put a hand on the shoulder of the stubborn student and said lightly:

“I’ve always liked to pull jaguars by the whiskers, so to speak, it’s my way of teasing the professor, it’s a private joke, you wouldn’t understand.”

“There is always something private going on between you three…!” he grumbled, frowning.

Drogo grinned at him charmingly but with a dangerous glint in his eyes:

“Are you jealous, Miles? Get in line!”

***

Having slipped away from the group at the Lima airport, Sebastian caught up with Sienna at the Gate D and handed the boarding pass to the attendant.

Once inside the plane, the man negotiated to have a seat next to Sienna and winked at her conspiratorially.

The girl was used to flying, but takeoffs and landings had always made her nervous, and now, to top it off, she was ashamed of showing it in front of the man she admired.

He smiled and leaned to her, whispering in her ear:

“I must admit that takeoffs make me nervous. But it’s natural – our bodies aren’t made for flying.”

She looked into his laughing eyes and smiled at him, blushing.

“Thanks.”

He took her hand and kissed it.

“I’m just a man like any other, please don’t put me on a pedestal…!” He sighed with relief. “We are alone, imagine that!”

She nodded.

“And we can stop hiding for once. I can’t believe it!”

The plane reached its cruising altitude and the ‘fasten the belt’ signs went off.

Sienna made a long exhale.

“Finally. How long is this flight?”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

“About 13 hours to Paris. Why?”

Sienna gazed at him foxily.

“I’ve heard much about the high-mile club, and there was no opportunity to check it out on our flight to Lima with all the eyes and the buzz… Are you its honorary member?”

Sebastian scoffed shyly.

“Why are you asking?”

The girl grinned.

“I’m curious to hear a saucy bedtime story…”

The man’s lips stretched into a wicked smile.

“All right, I’ll tell you one when the lights dim…”

“She was a beautiful brunette, sitting in the row across from mine, and she had her eyes on me since the beginning of the flight. I liked her well enough and demonstratively went to the toilet. She followed me without even a slight delay. I opened the door for her and stepped inside after her. Her eyes gleamed when she whispered, smiling crookedly: “No names!” and began kissing me and unbuckling my belt. There is not enough room for fancy stuff, but she was really into me, and I badly wanted sex, so we both enjoyed it quite a bit. Then we returned to our places and then went our separate ways. I never saw her again.”

Sienna wrinkled her nose.

“When you tell it, it sounds almost boring.”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m a scientist, not a romance novel writer. What we did was natural, and we both enjoyed it, what else is there to tell?”

The girl smiled perfidiously.

“Oh, I don’t know… How was she at sucking?”

The man’s face showed contradictory emotions, he was both reluctant to tell the intimate details, and enjoying the kinky game.

“She was… fairly good,” he said, at last, fixing Sienna in the eyes.

She grinned.

“Better or worse than me?”

He laughed softly and tousled her hair.

“Don’t make me compare other women to you. No one compares to you, okay?”

“Was her pussy shaven totally or partly?”

“Partly.”

“Did you give her your cream?”

He shuddered, tensing.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

He felt his mouth drying out, his skin covering in goosebumps and his nipples tensing as the hot images started jumping before his eyes.

“Into her mouth… Sienna, give it a rest.”

The girl narrowed her eyes slyly.

“You do not want to initiate me into the club?”

The man sighed.

“The first rule, keep it quiet. The second rule, keep it quiet, the third rule…”

“Keep it quiet?”

“Precisely.”

“I’ll make you scream.”

“You can always try.”

“Is it a challenge?”

Sebastian stood up, mentally cursing his jeans, and went to the aisle. Sienna unhurriedly followed him.

Once inside the WC, she realized that they could barely stand together.

The man just touched her when she warned him: “No hands!”

He smiled and asked in a whisper:

“Where do you want me to put them?”

Sienna replied in a strict voice:

“Just keep them off me and don’t move.”

They both washed their hands and did their best not to touch anything.

She lovingly brushed her palms along his rock-hard torso and extracted his awakened prisoner out of his tight jeans. She let out a long string of saliva fall on its tip, and Sebastian involuntarily parted his lips, closely watching her actions, his pupils starting to dilate.

She spat on it again and handed her cupped palm to him.

“Spit,” she ordered, intensely staring at the man. He did as she asked, still watching her with a rising desire and a hint of apprehension.

She began rubbing his cock, making the man pant and lick his lips, her prohibition to touch her and her maddening direct stare driving him nuts.

“Can I touch you already?” he asked, trying to catch her lips.

She ducked away from him and whispered:

“The only thing you can do is give me your cream…”

“But you are going too slow…”

“Yes.”

His tension was building up, and when he began moving his hips, his torturer got hold of his testicles. The man gasped, pushing his elbows against the cabin walls, his sculpted body contorting, and his skin rippling.

“I want you! Please give me more!”

She spat again and murmured:

“That’s as much as you’ll get… Look at me…”

They were looking into each other’s faces, while she was masturbating him, they were both biting their lips and panting, avidly desiring one another.

Sienna felt her own desire skyrocketing and hurriedly fumbled in her pants to reach for her pussy. Seeing that, Sebastian broke out of his self-imposed prohibition, pulled the girl’s pants further down, pushed her against the sink, and, looking at her in the mirror, entered her from behind.

“Oh god, I’ve never wanted a woman like this before! You drive me crazy!” he mumbled, pounding her wildly, his arms feverishly reaching under her t-shirt, his fingers squeezing her nipples, and his cock hitting her cervix.

“Muffle me!” she panted, her mouth wide open to let out a guttural moan.

The man clamped his palm over her mouth, cumming along with her. Their climax was so strong and lasted for so long that Sebastian began doubting his skill at preventing ejaculation. Each new wave coming stronger, making it harder to mount the attention against the current, the woman’s body sucking him in… He let out a groan, his body shuddering. He finally stroked her body, fully satisfied. The technique was flawless, and he felt both energized and serene, his woman wonderfully relaxed in his arms, having her last spasms contract on his still firm cock.

Slowly, she leaned on his torso and murmured gently:

“Did I tell you that your dick was a god? It drives me into nirvana…”

Sebastian kissed her tenderly and whispered in her ear:

“And it is at the full disposal of your sweet goddess…”

They fondled each other lovingly until a flight attendant knocked on the door and politely inquired if everything was all right.

***

The long-awaited arrival to the hotel room was a blessing.

Sienna, tortured for the most part of the last 24 hours by uncomfortable plane seats, transfers, and an interminable wait in the hotel lobby, dropped her luggage, shed her clothes, and darted into the shower.

The warm torrents of water did a miracle on her mood, and when equally exhausted Sebastian joined her, she was only too happy to help him wash away his fatigue.

Content and relaxed, they exited the shower, and the man helped her dry her skin by rubbing a big towel over her body.

Pensively, he stroked the girl’s shoulders and unexpectedly murmured with a melancholic air:

“Drogo is good for you, my dear. You have a very good thing going on with him…”

Sienna shuddered and looked at him through the mirror with budding distress.

“What’s this, baby? What are you talking about? Aren’t we good with you?”

The handsome professor bitterly smiled, his aquamarine eyes sad and wise.

“My dear, I know that he deeply loves you and that you trust him implicitly, however unlikely it may seem. That’s the makings of a very good chemistry… As for me… you do not trust me. You do not rely on me, you are constantly on your guard with me, anxious that I might evaporate at any moment without notice. But I am not like that, I am as simple as that animal I transform into. The fright you took when I had that accident… it had been bubbling somewhere at the back of your mind long before that. I am not familiar with your family history, but your enthusiasm for firearms seems to prove it. I’m like a forbidden fruit to you, something attractive and sweet that you shouldn’t have. You will always need a Drogo to balance our relationship. Someone you can understand and rely on. That is until or if you finally decide to face your fears and to accept that there are no guarantees in life and that there is a possibility that you indeed might lose me through some twist of fate. You need to build up your self-confidence right here…” he tapped on her chest, “…and to allow yourself to trust in me and to rely on me, to allow for any possibility in life to unfold without losing your countenance. Ultimately, it is about trusting life.”

Sienna listened to him attentively, slowly falling under the spell of his words, then nodded to him gravely, and asked:

“Will you help me?”

Sebastian smiled gently at her.

“Of course, by all means…” and then he added playfully: “In fact, I have a vested interest in doing so if I want to prevent you from smacking me again in public in the future…”

Sienna went pink, slapped her face with her palm, and moaned:

“Oh dear, I feel so ashamed!”

Sebastian laughed and kissed her on the shoulder, starting to move out of her sight in the mirror:

“That’s what you need to change, my dear. Shame is not a productive feeling. It is just indicative of things you need to re-think…”

He removed the towel that had been covering his loins and exited the bathroom. Sienna sighed and followed him out.

“Please explain,” she asked, frowning, as she observed him putting on his swimming trunks.

Jones grinned, spreading sunscreen over his skin.

“You see, a feeling is just like a sign saying ‘This Way’ for you to pay attention to something that you’ve misplaced. If you are ashamed of your actions then probably there is a part of you that knows what went wrong. Ask yourself, **_why_** it went wrong? What made you do the wrong thing? And there you’ll find the next bread crumb to follow to the root cause of your actions. There are no good or bad feelings, they all serve the right cause of guiding you.” He turned his back to the girl and handed her the lotion tube. “Now, the lecture is over, the rest is your homework. Please cover my back and let’s go take a swim.”

Sienna sighed to her thoughts, rubbing the sunscreen over his broad back.

“You know… I’m afraid that if I do that, the passion that I’m feeling for you will dissipate…”

The man shrugged his massive shoulders.

“You’ll never know until you make the discovery. Maybe there will be something else instead. Something more beautiful, something deeper… Either way, you cannot stay forever in the doorway.”

The girl’s face became grim.

“And then I’ll have to choose between you and Drogo?”

Sebastian sighed deeply and turned to the girl, his lucid eyes kindly gazing upon her.

“If you are already asking yourself these questions then you probably know the answers. You are scared because your imagination paints everything in dark colors. Maybe you’ll find an original solution that makes everyone happy. Either way, making peace with the situation changes it.”

Sienna thought it over and said truthfully:

“Until you said it, I could never understand what my shrink had been telling me, almost in the same words, but it never sank through at the time… That ‘bad’ feelings have the best intentions to lead us to the truth and thus have the same right to be there as the ‘good’ ones…”

Sebastian looked at her attentively but never reacted on the surprising existence of a shrink in Sienna’s life, and nodded reservedly:

“Yes, that’s about right…”

He waited for her to slip into a swimsuit and helped her put on sunscreen.

“Are we ready to go?” he asked lightly, making his best to convey to her that everything was fine between them. “Or you need more time?”

Sienna, still lost in thought, was displaying that mesmerizing mix of youthful purity, wholesomeness and adult maturity that Sebastian was finding so captivating. He paused, trying not to disturb her inner work.

Finally, the girl looked at him gently and asked:

“Would you mind going on your own now? I’ll join you later, my love. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.”

At the beach, she marveled again at Jones’s ease of communication. He was laughing with a few locals, sharing some joke with them in Arabic.

The girl wondered how many languages an archaeologist should muster. She had witnessed her professor speaking fluent Spanish in Peru, reading hieroglyphics of several cultures, and now he was easily switching to the guttural Arabic the most natural in the world. He was treating them as equal human beings, and they responded in kind.

When he saw Sienna, he joyfully grinned at her, his new fellows eagerly ogled the girl and said something to him.

Sebastian laughed, his eyes twinkling.

When the girl approached, he translated:

“They said I must be a sheikh to have married a princess.”

Sienna smiled.

“They say it to everyone.”

Sebastian shrugged.

“But in our case, it is true. I’m a very lucky man.”

There seemed to be no end to excitements of the journey. What was considered mundane by the local people, was magical and exciting for Sienna.

The boat merchants at Esna, throwing their goods to the travelers aboard cruise liners made her laugh, and she ended up buying an outrageously overpriced tablecloth, which she adored just because of the associated adventure. She could not get enough of Edfu, something calling to her in that mesmerizing place. To her utmost delight, she even found there a few blocks of carved limestone from the older temple and made a mental note to look up the cartouche that she spotted on one of them.

Sebastian was happily shadowing her but never interfered with her fun and her discoveries.

At Abu Simbel, he watched her zooming around the two temples while resting in the shadow of the only mimosa tree in the vicinity and exchanging lazy comments with fellow tourists seeking refuge in the same shade.

Predictably enough, the whole crew of their liner became friends with Sienna soon enough; she was beaming at them and they were beaming back at her. Her happiness was as contagious as ever, and her professor found himself excitedly discussing the details of their trip and historical precedents with her well into the night, foregoing sex and sleep.

She fell in love with the country’s stark contrasts of deep shadows and blinding light, of barren desert and lush greens of the river banks, of palaces standing proud in the midst of dirt heaps, of contemporary technologies on the background of age-old palms and ever-present donkeys. This country was passionate, both fickle and eternal, brimming with life.

“When I see you so full of enthusiasm, I start feeling like an old lecher chasing after a young Lolita,” laughed Sebastian after the girl’s prolonged account of their visit to the Aswan’s old souk.

Sienna burst out giggling.

“That’s because we did not have time for our dance practice today. But if you want me to call you ‘grandpa’ I’ll be happy to oblige. Our gossips at the Uni will be so delighted!”

Finally, she finished all her evening to-do’s, climbed into Sebastian’s bed, and cuddled up against him.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and resumed reading a book on his phone. The girl produced a manual on hieroglyphics and diligently began studying it.

After a dozen minutes, she giggled and showed Sebastian a ticket stub that had been serving her as a bookmark and had an ad for the Bank of Egypt on the reverse.

“Not so dumb, this logo! Look! They actually took the sign NB, for ‘gold’ and added a plural, making it ‘much gold’! So clever!”

Jones checked her manual and the stub.

“You didn’t get to the plurals yet…”

“Well, but the sign is the same as in personal pronouns here, look!”

The man laughed and ruffled her hair affectionately.

“You’re right. Planning on taking hieratic and demotics as well for the next semester? Brian Gilbert is an ace in those…”

Sienna pouted.

“I want to study with you…”

Sebastian scoffed and kissed the girl on the forehead.

“I know that you are ever ready to complicate things. But it was actually Brian who taught me demotics, so I’m just suggesting the best man in the field for you. No one will be able to refuse you if you want to enroll in my second-year anthropology class, but if you want to study hieroglyphics, there are better specialists than me, and you should go to them.”

The girl sighed, frustrated, and turned her attention again to the manual.

For another half-hour they were both reading, but then Sienna growled impatiently and smacked the manual against her forehead.

“It makes no sense! There is no system to their writing!!! They just piled together all signs that sounded the same into a bunch of gobbledygook!”

Sebastian tore himself from his book and laughed mockingly.

“That’s ancient writing to you…” he rubbed her shoulder and peeked into her manual. “Ah, interrogation words… Yes, well, they can be confusing… There are things that simply have to be memorized… Try to invent something that makes sense to you, look here… ‘When’ consists of a tamis, a horned viper, and a bread loaf… All of this takes time. Let’s say that it takes so much time for a horned viper to get where it wants to that one could sift flour and bake a loaf of bread while the viper creeps to its destination.”

Sienna looked at the man with adoring eyes.

“You make studying so awesome! How would I be able to study with someone else?!”

The man scoffed, yawned, and nodded to the manual.

“Invent an explanation for the word ‘what’ and let’s call it a day.”

Sienna cast a sideward glance at the page.

“There is a feather, something that looks like a cross and an owl. That’s easy. If I so much as see once more that blasted bird outside my window at Mystic Spell, I’ll smack it with a candleholder, its feathers will fly everywhere, and I’ll just ask ‘what owl’?”

Sebastien laughed out loud unbelievingly, but remarked anyway:

“There is only one feather drawn…”

Sienna pointed her index finger to the ceiling and exclaimed:

“Exactly! It would be the last feather left before I blow it away and ask ‘An owl? What owl?”

Jones giggled in spite of himself and shook his head:

“You and your bloodthirsty stories of owls!”

They paused, warmly looking each other in the eyes, balancing on the verge of kissing, but Sienna blew it by asking mischievously:

“Are you a pro-owl person?!”

Sebastian jerked his head away, scoffing, tossed his phone with the long-suffering book, switched off the light, and warned the girl semi-seriously:

“That’s it, young lady! If you so much as say another word, I’ll spank you and chase you off to sleep in your own bed, you get it?”

She giggled into his shoulder and stroked his chest.

“Does saying ‘good-night’ count?”

“I need sleep, Sienna. And your stories of owls do not help.”

“Good night, baby.”

But she could stay calm for only a couple of minutes:

“Are you serious, grandpa? Are you ready to snore?”

The man laughed then sighed:

“Might I remind you that while you were having a siesta, I was preparing for the meetings in Cairo?”

Sienna paused and then said reservedly:

“You never told me her name…”

Now it was Sebastian’s turn to pause. Then he said in an even voice:

“It is of no consequence. But if you must know, it’s Elisabeth McKinnon, professor of anthropology.”

The girl had a ton of questions concerning his ex but deemed it unwise to breach the subject in the middle of the night. So she kissed the man, slipped out of his bed, found her own cool sheets and dove between them.

The man scoffed.

“That’s it? You got what you wanted and now you duck away?”

Sienna smiled.

“You wanted to sleep, grandpa.”

“And you just wanted the name of my ex? Tell me, what did it get you? Now that I am with you, isn’t that enough?”

She heard some rustling and then felt him crawling between her sheets. His arms lightly brushed her torso through her thin nighty, his lips traced arabesques on her cheek and neck, his breath warmed her ear. The girl’s body instantly responded, but she was still a bit upset by the mention of an older woman that had such an impact on her lover’s mental and emotional state.

He began nibbling on her earlobe and asked, tenderly caressing her:

“Okay, I’m not snoring so far. Do you want my services?”

She sighed languorously and felt her nipples tighten.

“Yes. Gently…”

The man began covering her with feather-light kisses and caressing her body, her breasts, her hips and thighs through the fine silky fabric of her nighty. Sienna could not resist touching him back, his powerful hot body mesmerizing her and setting her senses ablaze. She tousled his dense silky hair, breathing heavily, as he was kissing her throat and pressing her against his hard torso. His fingers squeezed her hip, and she flexed her leg and spread it a little, enough for him to start caressing the surrounding area. He found a way to her breasts through the neck opening, and his mouth covered her nipple, sucking on it, his tongue twisting around it and tormenting its tip.

Sienna whimpered, her body undulating, pressing to the man, her hands ruffling his hair.

“Ah, baby, kiss me!”

He raised his head, and she heard him smile.

“Are you sure?”

His fingertips crept inside her panties and lightly fondled her nether lips; the girl gasped and pressed her avid mouth to his mouth. Their tongues intertwined, they sucked on each other, while his fingers slid inside her juicy little pie, making the girl shudder, groan, and put her leg around his waist.

They began embracing more forcefully, his fingers pushing inside her, massaging her labia, her free leg pressing his hips toward her. Sebastian disrupted their kissing, lowered to her crotch, pushed the panties aside, and wriggled his tongue on her beany, sliding it where his fingers had been teasing her.

Sienna dug her fingers into his skin and moaned:

“You are killing me! I want your cock inside me!”

The man laughed.

“Be patient, my love…”

The girl squirmed.

“I don’t want to be patient!”

She made her way to his crotch and began sucking on his balls and arduously licking his shaft.

The man groaned.

“Just don’t do your magic trick! I want to last a bit…”

Sienna rimmed his asshole with her tongue and returned to his balls. After a while, she asked him:

“You want me to beg you again, or to take the action into my own hands?”

Sebastian slid out of the bed in order to escape from the girl’s reach and stood at the foot of the bed, taking a pause. But girl quickly sprang to her knees and engulfed his cock in her mouth, sucking at it with such abandon and passion that the man almost came in a matter of minutes.

“Shhhh, take it easy, I don’t want to rush it!” he protested, stroking her head. With a little regret, he pushed her back on the bed.

Sienna lay in front of him, panting and licking her lips. After swiftly wriggling out of her nighty and panties, she began rising to him again, but he pushed her gently back and leaned over her. His weight gradually increased on her body, his warm breath tickling her skin; he spread her legs and lingered at the entrance, teasing her with his fingers.

The girl growled impatiently and tried to direct his cock, but the man caught her hands and raised them above her head. She moaned, wriggled, and began rubbing her legs on his sides, trying to reach his cock with her crotch.

He nibbled on her lips, pressed her frantically writhing body to the bed, and finally entered her with an excited moan.

His lovemaking was at once controlled, gentle and passionate, making them both climbing to such heights that their bodies vibrated in a ball of pulsating energy, sending both lovers into ecstasy.

“Aahhhh! You’re my god! Give it to me…! Please!” she panted, her entire body yearning for the man.

He put her legs on his shoulders, licked her shin, and whispered:

“I’ll take all of your entrances before I let you cum…”

Sienna groaned.

“Not this time, baby! I will combust before that! I’m using the stop-word! I want you too much!”

Sebastian caressed her ankle and said, smiling:

“Your wish is my command. Hang on!”

He rammed into her, making her cry out, pumping into her with the full force of his desire, and soon her and his cries merged into a single:

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

***

An efficient air conditioning system combined with opaque window screens let them soundly sleep well into the morning.

Uncharacteristically, Sienna woke up earlier than her lover and used this moment to contemplate his chiseled features. She gently removed a strand of hair from his face and caressed his cheek and chest.

As if sensing her probing gaze, his black eyelashes trembled, and the man opened his beautiful clear eyes.

He smiled at the girl and stretched, sighing.

“Good morning, my darling,” he murmured in a hoarse voice and stroked her head.

She was still looking at him inquiringly, and he asked:

“Is everything all right, baby?”

In one fluid movement, she straddled him and said, fixing him in the eyes:

“I just realized I didn’t know you at all, I mean as a human being. All we do is talk shop and screw like rabbits at the slightest opportunity. Okay, we dance too, but all I know about you is that your mom is an artist living in Baltimore, that you have a little big brother, and that your dog’s name was Flash. And that at some point you had an affair with your professor. All this isn’t really about you.”

Sebastian sighed, collecting his wits, stroked the girl’s hips and thighs, and looked at her with a crooked smile:

“And what do you want to know? You can ask me anything… if you let me go take a leak…”

She giggled and jumped off him.

“All right. Let’s start with a simple one. I know that in American schools, there are widespread stereotypes, like nerds, jocks… Who were you?”

Sebastian grunted and went to the bathroom.

“Being from preps socially, I preferred to be a drifter, mostly, or an outsider, if it tells you anything…”

Sienna stretched and yawned.

“Nope. It’s all Greek to me. I’ve heard only of jocks and nerds. There are lots of things I do not get about American society. Like these high school cliques. Or an obsession of asking about a person’s favorite color and number. I wouldn’t even think that such things could ever be ‘favorite’!”

Sebastian laughed from the bathroom.

“Yeah, Europeans are subtler than Americans on the average, but cultural differences exist everywhere you go... That’s why I like anthropology. There is no end to studying humankind.”

Sienna smiled, examining herself in the mirror.

“How did you get interested in anthropology?”

Water began pouring, and Sebastian raised his voice:

“Being a drifter, or the one not belonging to a stable group, I was always good with individual interaction, with blending in… I was always curious about people… My mom made efforts to get me interested in arts, pushed me to learn dancing, but it never made me a thespian… Although I got it quickly enough that dancing landed me with lots of girls’ attention… I did not even hesitate when I saw a college course in anthropology…”

Sienna frowned.

“And that’s when…”

Sebastian interrupted her.

“Come here, baby, I don’t want to shout.”

When she entered the bathroom, he was in the shower, where he pulled her in and looked her in the eyes.

“Sienna, I sense that you have lots of questions about my… teacher. You may ask anything. Absolutely anything, except for intimate stuff like what you’d asked me about the high-mile club, okay?”

The girl nodded, and Sebastian helped her lather her back. He continued to explain:

“I met her in my 3rd year, she was a specially invited lecturer from Britain. Naturally, I was impressed…”

Sienna sighed and hugged the man.

“Suddenly, I do not care to know anything about her…”

He stroked her back and head and smiled:

“Then you might wonder why I don’t ask you about your past… I’m better informed on you than you are on me. When I saw you and talked to you in my class, the first thing I did afterwards was to re-read your dossier. Now I know it by heart. Since then, I observe and study you each moment that we spend together, each your breath and fluttering of lashes. I can understand you fairly well, and still, I love to observe you... You brush your hair absentmindedly, you like to touch things and people, you like strawberries, and you hate socks… You have a voyeur side, through mirrors, and you transform your shyness into steaming hot passion… You like it rough, you get excited by danger and violence, but you know your limits, you like seeing intense rapture on my face when you make me spill semen, you crave hearing my vocalizing and you cum when I clasp you very tightly against me… With you, it’s always a balancing act, a powerplay where you want to dominate and simultaneously be dominated… You are very compassionate even if you try to hide it because sometimes it hurts you… You erroneously think that you can defend me while it’s neither your place nor it is in your power. I’m older than you are and I’m a reasonably well-prepared man, I will never cower behind a girl’s back, however brave she may be… I am your tutor, your mentor, your lover, and it’s my place to defend you, not vice versa...”

Sienna ardently and gratefully covered his mouth with hers and slid her tongue inside his mouth. After a passionate kiss, she murmured in a husky voice, hiding her face from him:

“And you forgot to say that I feel very insecure around my lover. I have so many ‘what ifs’ that the only way to shut them up for a while is to make you possess me…”

Sebastian smiled again.

“Name a few, maybe I’ll help you alleviate them…”

Sienna switched off the water and stepped out of the cabin. She used the time while wrapping the towel on her head to collect her thoughts.

“For one, as you’ve already mentioned, I am much younger than you are, and hence I’m no match for more adult, intelligent, and beautiful women; they stand far better chances to get your attention…”

The man grinned, rubbing his skin with a towel.

“Well, to be perfectly honest, there is a degree of truth to what you say, intelligent and beautiful women do tend to attract my attention. But you are confusing attention, sex, and heart. For me, their experience and social skills are no wonder, it’s something that can be acquired and, therefore, I do not miss lacking thereof in you. The only real difference is their self-assurance, their personalities but they are more of a hindrance as it makes them… smaller… more… callous… As for you, you shine with the sacred sun of life, and I’m mesmerized by the light that shines through you. There is nothing comparable to this light. No shell, no identity can do that.”

The girl lowered her head, feeling his words.

“So… you love not me but what you see in me?”

He laughed softly and stroked her head, unable to explain in words.

“Oh, dear, if it were that simple… Maybe you’ll learn in time… I’m sorry I brought it up.”

The girl furrowed her brow.

“So… they are fun, and I’m some sort of an object of admiration?”

Sebastian sighed. She was the vessel, but she could not see it. So he switched to things she could understand.

“I have enough fun with you discussing ancient cultures and dancing in the moonlight. And laughing, joking, fooling around… Don’t you think that we have enough fun together? What about movie nights, that awful karaoke and swimming in the town fountain? Age doesn’t matter when it comes to feeling good around you. Did I answer your question?”

Sienna grinned happily.

“For about half a day… And what if my body becomes… less attractive?”

Sebastian looked at her incredulously.

“You, women, and your body angst! You know I love your body, but I also know that body changes throughout one’s life, and that’s natural. To answer your question. Do not worry about your body, I’m not fixated on young girls, you should know better…” he smiled and added, “I feel more insecure that I’m no match to three vampires…”

The girl shook her head with a smile on her lips.

“Oh, you do quite well, actually. I never miss them when I’m with you.”

The man looked at her without real conviction.

“Not even Drogo?”

Sienna held his gaze and sighed.

“Well… I miss Drogo, that’s true… But you know that I love you both…”

Sebastian tossed the towel, shook his head, and exited the bathroom.

“I still have trouble understanding it…”

***

Nicolas and Peter were looking at Drogo in disbelief.

Peter was the first to react.

“Wow…! You look… different! Your skin is almost… alive!”

Drogo rolled his eyes and smirked.

“Oh, please! Spend the summer or, actually, winter in tropics and you’re bound to acquire a tan!”

Nicolas shook his head, frowning.

“Not with us. You’ve changed since… since you started hanging out with Dr. Jones and Sienna…”

Drogo arched his brow and smiled slyly:

“You mean after I died and then started eating food? I thought this was awesome for our secrecy…”

Nicolas put his index finger to his lips, his face displaying extreme worry.

“But your condition changed even further! Our father should never know about this! This is highly irregular, and until we learn more…”

Their blond brother sighed impatiently.

“To know more, ask our dear professor. Now, will you let me unpack at least?!”

***

It was suffocating hot in Mystery Spell, and Sarah dove into the closest grocery store more to cool down than to buy anything.

Unhurriedly strolling by an aisle, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. An all-too-familiar svelte silhouette with a blond mop of hair on his head was unceremoniously drinking from a milk bottle.

“Hey, over there! You’ll still have to pay for it!” yelled the cashier, having spotted the actions of the customer in a round mirror.

Drogo looked directly at Sarah and shook his head disapprovingly.

“See what you’ve done?” he asked her reproachfully in an even voice.

The Osborne girl was still frozen in place, carefully watching Drogo’s predatory stare lower. The vampire wiped his mouth and put the half-emptied bottle into his cart.

Sarah glanced inside it and saw various fruits, a bottle of whiskey, shaving foam, and razors. Drogo raised his eyes at the girl and let a crooked sardonic smile touch his lips.

“Checking out my diet?” he murmured as he made a few steps toward her.

Sarah sharply inhaled air, but the vampire just took a packet of chips from a nearby shelf behind her and stepped back. He calmly stood there, watching her regain her wits, while Sarah blinked several times and finally relaxed a bit.

“Whew… Never would have thought to see you here of all places… Has Sienna arrived yet?”

Drogo winced.

“She’s supposed to arrive next Monday. You, being her friend, should know it.”

The way he said it left Sarah with an odd feeling that he was standing there talking to her precisely because she was Sienna’s friend. Did he… just wanted to talk about her?

The girl hesitated.

“Errr… Well, we texted a few days back in Messenger, but all she was talking about were the Abu Simbel temples. She seems quite fond of Egypt…”

Drogo’s obvious attention to her words made her think that he was not getting any messages from his lover. So she continued:

“She said that in three days she would be in Cairo, so I guess she’s already there, discovering the Cairo Museum… I envy her so much! That museum is incredibly rich…”

For a spell, Drogo had an expression of someone with a nasty toothache, but then his face smoothed.

“Tell you what, how about we go to a café, my treat?”

Sarah was dumbstruck but tried to recover as quickly as possible.

“Oh…! Ah… well… sure, it’s definitely better than to chat standing here…”

She gobbled down a few spoonfuls of ice-cream before she could relax in the airconditioned room. Drogo was nonchalantly sipping a milkshake, but Sarah still felt awkward in his company. At first, at the grocery, him drinking milk seemed so weird that it practically did not register with her, and now here, in the café, a tanned vampire drinking a milkshake was practically an otherworldly vision.

Noticing her perplexed look, Drogo sighed and explained:

“Yes, I can intake foodstuff. It’s a long story… but I can still bite,” he grinned devilishly and winked at Sarah. “So, Sienna’s best friend, what can you tell me about her adventures in Egypt? She knows that I’m no aficionado of old junk, but I would still like to know what places she’s been to…”

Sarah hesitated, but the reserved and artificially cool look on Drogo’s face told her plenty, and she, making a conscious effort to say ‘she’ instead of ‘they’, explained:

“Sienna has never been keen on texting, and during your expedition, I managed to talk to her only when you were at the airports, but since she landed in Egypt, she’s been keeping me in the loop of the journey. She started by Cairo, took a boat there, then went all the way up to Middle Egypt, visited Luxor and went up the river to Aswan, visiting Edfu, Com Ombo, Philae, and finally reaching Abu Simbel…”

Drogo winced and resolutely interrupted her.

“You know, I am aware that she is there with Jones, so, you might as well stop omitting him from your tale.”

Sarah shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, well… we do not discuss him anyway. She’s all about the country, the monuments, the local people…”

Unexpectedly, the vampire breached what had been bugging him:

“I keep wondering if she truly loves him, is it pity that she has for me? Why doesn’t she tell me off?”

Sarah caught her breath and lowered her gaze.

“I… I don’t believe I’m the right person to answer that question, Drogo. She’s never been the confiding type… But… when I saw you together, I never doubted your chemistry, you’re like a pair of gloves, fitting together… With… ah… professor, it’s more of an admiration for her teacher I guess…”

The man before her muttered and wrought up his face as if in a toothache.

“Appearances, appearances…” he grumbled, then looked at Sarah with eyes murky with pain. “She trembles over him as if he were a porcelain doll!”

Sarah sighed and thought it over. Then she raised her head and cast a direct look at Drogo.

“I may be wrong, but I believe it’s rather a matter of trust. She trusts you, and she doesn’t rely on Dr. Jones. He is an adult man and could be off with another woman in a blink of an eye when he gets bored with his student… I believe that would be her train of thought…”

Drogo sneered through his clenched teeth:

“I’m older than all of them, and she still thinks that his feelings are fickle and mine are rock-solid! What an irony! So, she just went off with him thinking that I can wait?! Never writing so much of a word! Is that it?”

Sarah sighed in desperation.

“Drogo, first, I don’t think I’m the right person to vent off your frustration to. Second, I think that you’re winding yourself up. If you are suffering that she does not write to you, write to her and see if she is ignoring you on purpose or is just too excited with new impressions! You know, I also have to nudge her from time to time. You know how she is, a bit of an airhead…”

With relief, she saw him deflating and prodded him further:

“Sienna has kind heart, she would probably imagine that she is protecting you by not writing to you, by not reminding you of her whereabouts, and it certainly is not some evil plot on her part! She’s always been meaning well!”

This seemed to soothe Drogo even more, and he suddenly looked very tired to the girl.

“I thank you, Sarah. You seem… decent for an Osborne…”

And their conversation took on a much lighter and friendlier tone.

***

Sienna took out her phone to make another series of photos of the inside of a fourth-dynasty sarcophagus and saw a message.

“Oh! Drogo!” she grinned happily and eagerly opened it.

“ _Hey, how’s my little thing doin in Cairo Museum? Seen smthn decent 4 home décor?_ ”

She smiled and replied:

“ _My Fruit-Bat is well informed I c! Hypnotized Sarah_?”

The answer came quickly:

“ _We had a truce ovr a milkshake_.”

She smiled again and found a corner to sit quietly.

“ _I’m rite now in the Cairo Museum! Can u imagine!!!_ ”

She could almost see Drogo grinning.

“ _Actually yes I can. I have a good imagination._ ”

Sienna bit her lip and typed:

“ _I’ll soon b @ home. Just a few more days_.”

“ _And?_ ”

“ _And I’ll c u. I wanted so much to share this journey with u!_ ”

There was a long pause, and Sienna began doubting that there would be any response when the last message finally came.

“ _2 bad it wasn’t in the cards. C u soon_.”

***

Drogo dropped the phone to the table and took another sip of whiskey.

There was no light in his studio, only the monitor gave off an eerie glow and illuminated the vampire’s face, making it look bleached.

Drogo moved the mouse, and the screen sprang back to life, revealing several windows with business correspondence. He closed everything and looked into the eyes of his own photo in the wallpaper.

“You’re such a wreck…” he mumbled to the photo, raised his glass to it, and finished his drink.

The phone rang, and the man winced. Nicolas.

Drogo sighed and picked it up.

“If you are done with self-pitying, I could use your help. Peter has been tailing the student for the whole day, and it seems that his father is connected to the mayor’s assistant. He’s seen them discreetly talking in a backstreet. You are the least suspicious of us, and I’d like you to have breakfast in the ‘Old Nibbler Diner’, that’s where the man will go this morning. I’ll send you his photo. Just watch him while we check out his home… Glad you came back.”

Drogo screwed up his face.

“Always happy to indulge in your cloak and dagger games!”

Nicolas on the other end sighed in exasperation.

“If you want to continue pretending to be a prodigy photographer, be my guest, but either way, you need a solid backup. And that’s us. Our beautiful nanny was right about this fellow student of hers, his father indeed has something to do with the Descendants, he may even be a part of their gang. And we need to know them better than they know themselves, for obvious reasons. But if you still think that you’d be happier away…”

The blond vampire grimaced and interrupted his brother:

“All right, breakfast is breakfast, I think I can manage that… What time?”

Nicolas gave him the details and the address and hung up.

***

Sarah was completely dumbstruck. She even let her dress fall to the floor.

The message from Drogo wasn’t clearer if read twice.

“ _Classes r still a week away. How about a breakfast?_ ”

While the girl was hypnotizing the screen, trying to devise a reply, a second message came:

“ _Old Nibbler Diner on Mercury Road, 9:00?_ ”

Sarah blinked a few times, then, more out of curiosity than anything else, typed:

“ _OK. C u there_.”

***

When Sarah came in, her attention was instantly caught by the handsome blond vampire sipping espresso. He radiantly smiled at her and jovially gestured her to join him. A few other customers turned their heads to check her out, and she, smiling shyly, navigated through the room toward him.

“Hey, what’s all this breakfast thing?” she asked, intrigued.

Drogo shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Oh, this and that… Aren’t you happy to see me, Osborne?”

Sarah put her bag on the couch next to her and sat down.

“I will never believe that you invited me for a mere chit-chat, Bartoli. If this is about Sienna again, she comes the day after tomorrow and you’ll be able to see her soon enough.”

Drogo shook his head and bit into his toast.

“Do you think I’m incapable of simply inviting my friend’s friend to breakfast?”

Sarah vigorously nodded.

“Yes, I believe you are.”

The blond man theatrically sighed.

“Tsk-tsk-tsk! Such lack of faith at such a tender age!” he looked at her slyly. “Why are you always expecting the worst? What will you have for breakfast?”

They spent another half-hour eating and chatting until a certain customer finished his breakfast and asked for the bill.

Drogo quickly put a banknote on the table and asked Sarah:

“You came here by car?”

The girl nodded.

“Let’s go, I’ll explain to you once inside…”

“Follow that car,” casually said Drogo, settling in the passenger seat. “Last time my crazy family freaked out about the Descendants you did well, little Osborne.”

Sarah glared at him but turned the key in the ignition.

“Seriously?! So that’s the reason you invited me here?!”

Drogo shrugged his shoulders.

“Are you against a little thrill? You seemed so keen on helping us last time, Descendants being witches’ enemies as well… or were you helping because of Sienna?”

Sarah instantly flared up:

“Stop bringing her up!”

Drogo retorted before thinking:

“You were the first to bring her up! You’re as jealous as I am!”

A pause settled inside the car, Drogo having blurted out unexpectedly what he had been feeling for a long time with such sincerity that both of them were feeling abashed.

Sarah licked her lips and cleared her throat.

“Well, you are right, I was personally interested in Descendants for obvious reasons. So let me shift my plans and I’ll be ready to drive you around…”

Drogo sighed.

“Thanks, Osborne.”

They drove in silence, inconspicuously following their target.

Stuck in a traffic light, Sarah ventured placidly:

“I have been always anxious that she puts herself in danger around you, Bartolis, and with your… ah… close relationship I’ve been totally freaking out!”

Drogo glanced at her and smiled bitterly:

“You don’t understand, Osborne. I would never be able to hurt her, I know, I tried. I’d rather kill myself than so much as scratch her. She does not smell like food to me. She smells like… bliss…”

Sarah sighed.

“Oh, Drogo, you have a way talking about her…!”

“I need to get away from her.”

The girl resumed following the car but glanced at the blond vampire incredulously.

“What are you talking about?!”

Drogo was looking straight ahead when he uttered:

“Do you realize how it is to kiss a loved one and never know whom she wants at that moment? It drives me crazy. I’m just meddling in her life, confusing her…”

Sarah mirthlessly laughed.

“At least she kisses you. I will not dissuade you, but I doubt I would do the same… If I knew that she would be as happy to see me as she would certainly be seeing you, I would meet them at the airport with a huge bouquet of flowers and a bunch of balloons!”

Drogo glanced at the girl, narrowing his silvery eyes, and a slight smile crept onto his face.

“Osborne, I never thought you’d be so much fun. What if we go to the airport together?”

***

They let Nicolas switch them for Peter, who took over their spying and went to the manor to see the eldest brother.

“All right, you’ve done excellent work. I know it is tedious, but it will help us greatly. If this Loan of yours is indeed connected to the organization, we might need Sienna to get closer to him. It might even necessitate you, Drogo, to appear distancing yourself from her… I know it is too much to ask, and we will resort to it only as the last alternative, I’m just forewarning you that it is a possibility.”

Drogo, stony-faced, sharply rose and strolled to the cabinet in the living room. He took a carafe with amber liquid and a glass, poured a bit of liquor into the glass, then hesitated and left it untouched. He looked at his brother in the eyes and quietly asked him:

“What’s the point, brother?”

Nicolas frowned.

“What do you mean?”

Drogo made a few steps in his direction and made a wide gesture with his arms.

“This is no life, brother, if in order to survive one must renounce everything he holds dear. Hiding here, in this manor, from all ebbs and flows of life, from some stupid old creepy secret societies, is not living. So what’s the point in such an eternal existence? What is there to lose?”

His eldest brother’s frown deepened.

“We try to fit in, Drogo. We try to live like normal people, and that is our life.”

The blond man laughed bitterly and derisively.

“Oh, no-no-no! This is your life, Nicolas, and, perhaps, Peter’s, because he denies everything that he is until he just goes wacko and tries to suck our nanny dry. It’s never been my choice!”

Nicolas glanced at the silent Sarah and turned his angered face to Drogo. But his voice was cold and measured when he replied:

“Listen. All these emotions that you’re feeling are giving you an illusion that you could be alive again. But it’s just that – an illusion. Maybe the fact that you can eat again spurred your imagination, but you have no heartbeat to speak of nor other functions…”

He did not finish his sentence because Drogo began laughing out loud.

Having laughed to his delight, the blond man gestured to Sarah and went to the exit, dismissing his brother.

“Let’s go, Sarah, I see no point in continuing this idle chat…” he paused and turned around. “I will help you, Nicky, with your spy games, but not at the expense of my life.”

He let the girl out of the gate and followed her to her car.

“Will you drop me by my studio?” he asked her, grinning.

Sarah nodded, but asked all the same:

“What was so funny?”

Drogo held out his wrist to her and allowed her to feel his pulse. The girl’s eyes widened.

“It’s… very slow, but steady…”

The man grinned again:

“This never should get leaked to Vittore Bartoli, under no circumstance.”

The girl turned on the engine.

“Why are you telling me then?”

“Because he is our common enemy.”

***

Sebastian opened the door to their hotel room and tossed the thick paper file full of documents onto the table. His lover was nowhere to be seen, and the man went to the shower.

While he was still in the bathroom, he heard the door closing.

“Are you in the shower, baby?” he heard Sienna’s ringing voice.

“Yes, dear.”

Sienna poked her head inside and grinned:

“And what happened to ‘baby’?” she came in and kissed him on the cheek.

The man grabbed her and kissed her properly on the mouth.

“I just wanted to vary a bit…”

Sienna smiled.

“So how was your meeting?”

Sebastian moaned and let her go.

“Exhausting. This book will be extremely dull, they refused to include my narratives… ‘We need only facts, not some bedtime stories…!’ The good it will do to the sales!”

Sienna cast him a sideward glance.

“And that’s all…? You know I’m asking about… professor McKinnon…”

Jones sighed and replied unhurriedly, his eyes cast low:

“You know… Probably I had to meet her to see how much I have changed…”

The girl did not push him to go on, patiently waiting, but the man only stroked her shoulder and said, raising his eyes at her with a smile:

“You do not have to worry about anything, baby. Now, how was your day?”

Sienna displayed a heavenly smile.

“You know, if I had a month to spend in that place, I would be still amazed at all the beauty and wonders it contains. And I’m so glad I do not need to stick to those awful crowds of tourists! This is when I came to appreciate your special admittance card!”

And she went on recounting all the insights and excitements of the museum, Sebastian smiling and asking questions, visibly pleased to discuss the subject, and also sharing his thoughts and experiences.

Sienna glanced at their ready backpacks and sighed.

“Last night of freedom. Makes me so sad to leave this place!”

Jones narrowed his eyes mockingly.

“Are you telling me you’d rather stay here without completing your education, dear miss Richards?”

Sienna looked at him inquiringly, then slyly smiled:

“Are you in the mood to teach your student some ancient Egyptian technique?”

Sebastian laughed, his mind already set on pleasure. He took the girl into his arms and carried her to the bed, where he removed her jeans and began lightly caressing her body.

“Actually, there are known ancient treatises on the subject… like the Turin Erotic Papyrus for example…”

Sienna felt sweet shivers running all over her body, feeling the man’s warm breath and his demanding lips on her neck. He was teasing her through her underwear while whispering in her ear between kisses:

“It describes the frolics of men with coquettes in various poses. Its contents were deemed so obscene that the papyrus was never published until 1973…”

The girl pleasurably caressed his incredible sculpted body and asked:

“What’s so naughty in there?”

Sebastian smiled:

“I didn’t see anything outstanding in it, and it’s badly preserved to boot, Kamasutra in comparison is much more detailed and varied, but probably before the advent of the Internet, it was considered rather explicit… I believe the whole hype around it is seriously overblown…”

His lips traveled to her lacey bra cup, moistened its tip, his teeth grazing on the protruding nipple, and his fingers began stroking her hip and the front of her panties.

Sienna bit her lip. The stimulation of her nipple made her inner muscles contract lustfully. Now she wanted to see that papyrus… Even if the whole hype around it was seriously overblown…

“Oh…” she could not retain a sigh, feeling his fingers through the silky lace of her wet panties. This teasing was highly arousing. He was not in a hurry to get more direct, steeping her in languorous slowness. He deliberately slowly pressed her knees together, turned her to the side, caressed her butt-cheek, and reached for her labia and anus with his fingertips from behind her hip.

The girl moaned: he was still fondling her through the fabric, and it drove her crazy.

She pulled at Sebastian’s head with her hands and made him look at her. As soon as she imagined his clear eyes rimmed with kohl in the ancient Egyptian fashion she could not resist him anymore and began avidly kissing him on the lips, moaning with excitement.

His fingers finally crept under her panties and found her juicy little hole. The girl let out a small cry. Panties pressed against her skin, cutting into it, and it added to her arousal. She felt for his thick, straight, and fully erect phallus, and smeared the drop of the clear liquid that appeared on its tip. But he took her hands away, rolled her to her back again, demandingly pushing fingers of his one hand into her and keeping her hands off him with the other, and teased her nipples with his mouth.

Sienna could feel her body turning into a burning furnace, undulating, and craving for the man’s touch, shivering with anticipation and impatience. He was restricting her, and it only added to the rapture she was experiencing.

Her mouth avidly open and expulsing hot breath and moans, her pupils dilated, she, however, managed to ask her tormentor:

“Did you ever have threesomes with two girls?”

Sebastian smiled at her.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m fantasizing about giving you lots of pleasure…”

He affectionately pressed her tightly against his own hot torso and murmured, smiling:

“Oh, you’re giving me plenty of pleasure… and more…”

Sienna squirmed, her hips rocking, trying to push his fingers further inside, and stubbornly growled:

“You didn’t answer…”

The man laughed:

“Do you like dirty talk? Oh, if you must know, in college, it was quite the norm for me to wake up between cute girls, not always two…”

Sienna giggled mockingly.

“And you aren’t ready to accept my poor vampires…! So, what was the biggest number of them in your bed?”

He used the time to pull off her underwear to remember and replied:

“At an orgy, we ended up having about eight totally wild girls, my two friends were being the masterminds behind this craziness… Now, stop degrading what we are having and give me your mouth…”

She paused again, looking at him questioningly.

“Am I mistaken or you seem more… unbridled?”

His eyes twinkled in the twilight of the room illuminated by the light seeping from the bathroom.

“As you said, it’s our last free night…”

He indeed seemed freer, more relaxed and playful, as if a knot of tension had dissolved somewhere inside. Sienna could only guess that it had something to do with his meetings, but she decided against prying, provided it made her lover so happy.

***

In the plane, they were clinging to each other, enjoying their exhibitionism, and using all the free time that was left to them, for as soon as they would land, the rules of the game would require the re-installment of cold formalities and meddling of other people.

The local airport greeted them with stunning ads of the newest BDSM Mirage jewelry line. As promised, Sebastian’s face was barely recognizable, and the picture was amazing. The instant was caught perfectly, it was both provocative and tasteful, the girl’s facial expression both very complex and eternal, speaking to every human being.

“Drogo is an ace,” Sebastian was genuinely impressed, and the girl smiled.

“He is a genius…”

Several passengers wanted to take selfies with Sienna, and she indulged them, making sure that Sebastian stayed out of the frame.

“I just want to get home as soon as possible!” murmured Sienna, momentarily squeezing Jones’s hand.

He squeezed her back, a hint of a smile in the corners of his lips.

“We’ll soon be there…” he whispered, scanning the crowd for familiar faces.

Sienna foxily smiled, looking the other way and murmured:

“Yesterday, I heard exactly that pitch of scream that I always wanted to hear from you. I’d love to repeat the success…”

Sebastian could not help but cracked a brief smile.

“You’re absolutely impossible, miss Richards… I will take revenge…”

They hurried to the taxi and left the airport when a svelte figure in a beanie hat appeared from behind a column. He was followed by anxious Sarah.

The Osborne girl sighed.

“You were right. Giving them another 12 hours is much better than any flowers or balloons…”

Drogo removed his sunglasses and followed the taxi with a clever gaze.

“Indeed I am, Osborne, indeed I am.”

A message blipped, and Drogo scoffed, reading: “ _Appreciate ur tact, Drogo. C u 2morrow 4 breakfast. J._ ”

***

The house greeted them with cozy quiet as if they had never left. The air was a bit stuffy, which Jones promptly rectified by opening the French window giving to the veranda.

When they finally settled for the evening in the living room, Sebastian reading something in Arabic and looking for additional meaning in English commentaries, Sienna brewed them some tea and picked a book on Egyptian funerary rites from Jones’s collection.

But the text was dense, highly academic, and the girl had to make a huge effort to get through it, which was draining after such a long trip back home.

She cast a furtive glance at her beloved man. He was musing on something, having bent his head back, eyes closed. When she approached him, he opened his eyes, and she was stunned by their shine.

He softly smiled at her and nodded, prompting her to speak.

She showed him the book and sighed:

“I don’t know how you can study at the end of such a long day, I am completely unable to focus…”

Sebastian smiled and gestured to her to sit down next to him and hugged her with his arm when she did so.

“I’m not studying, my love, I’m nourishing myself…” she blinked at him, uncomprehending, and he explained: “There are many kinds of food, for all parts of us. We eat pasta and salad, we have sex, we study things, we talk to each other, but we also appreciate art, dance, listen to music, read poetry; all this nourishes us. I’m reading a Sufi poet, the beauty of his imagery restores me, much in the same way as our conversations do.”

Sienna smiled.

“Then why did you prefer this poet to a chat with me?”

He laughed and tousled her hair.

“Because there is a chat and there is a conversation. Also, you tend to vary your menu, don’t you? You do not restrict your communication exclusively to one person, right? There are other people, other impressions… Here, listen… _The pupil of mine eye stretched forth its hand/ To grasp my bowl (her matchless countenance/ Transcending mortal beauty) and therefrom/ Poured me the fever and the flame of love,/ While with my glance I gave my friends to think/ Draining their juice it was that filled my soul/ (And I intoxicated) with deep joy_ …”

The girl smiled and cuddled cozily against the man.

“Could you please read to me some more?”

Sebastian took the translated version and continued in a deep soothing voice:

“… _Yet having eyes to drink, I could dispense/ With that my goblet, since her qualities/ And not my wine inebriated me_ …”

***

In the morning, the doorbell rang, and Sebastian went to open the door. Drogo was standing on the porch, clean-shaven and alert. The owner of the house warmly smiled at him and shook his hand.

“C’mon in, you’re right on time, the breakfast is ready.”

Drogo inhaled the air and exclaimed, his face displaying an array of conflicting emotions:

“Pancakes?”

Sebastian walked toward the kitchen, explaining:

“I had no way of knowing what variety of pancakes were popular in the 20-ies, so this is only an approximation made based on surviving recipes, I hope you’ll find them decent…”

As if in a fairy tale, Drogo saw a sunlit kitchen with a plate of steaming pancakes, cream, and blueberries on the side. Jones took his bag and added:

“I’ll call Sienna and leave you two to catch up…”

Drogo grabbed the man by the wrist and shook his head.

“Stay, Jones. During the school year, I spend much more time with the little thing than you do. I’d like us to have at least a breakfast together if you don’t mind.”

Jones looked at the blond vampire, and clearly saw the street urchin’s most relished dream of having breakfast with his family.

“Of course, Drogo. I’ll be glad to. I’ll go get Sienna…”

The girl’s genuine and very noisy joy at seeing her ‘Fruit-Bat’ and her shower of kisses visibly relaxed Drogo. The initial awkwardness gone, their breakfast transformed into a lively exchange of stories, compliments on Drogo’s talent, and discussions of projects and plans.

Amazingly, once they got together again, all their tensions and dark thoughts vanished, replaced by the sheer joy of being together, laughing, joking, fooling around, and having fun.

Sienna was so happy and grateful to both men that she could not even express it to the full extent, so she hugged them both and kissed them.

“Guys, I’m so happy with you, and I cannot express enough my gratitude for what you are doing for me! Believe me, I understand what it costs you to share me with each other, and I simply do not know what to do to make it up to you!”

The men exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders. Sebastian kissed her hand and said coolly:

“Drogo’s all right. We wouldn’t be able to get along if he weren’t how he is.”

Drogo grinned.

“Big deal! When you’re away, I just drink a lot, whore around, and do horrible photoshoots. Nothing new under the moon, apparently.”

Sebastian frowned.

“I hope you do know about STDs?”

The vampire grinned.

“And I hope you know about rubber and our immunity to diseases?”

Jones sighed.

“By ‘our’ you mean vampires? And what if you are not one of them any longer?”

Drogo winced and grumbled:

“I can make an anonymous STD test if you want to. Provided these stupid Descendants do not have access to lab results.”

Sienna waved her hands.

“Guys, it would be indeed a good idea to compare Bartolis’ blood with Drogo’s to understand the difference. We cannot go to any lab, but I can take an extra biology class this year, and we’ll have access to the University lab. It could be useful to us for many reasons. Remember that tea that the mayor gave us?”

Sebastian looked pensive, but Drogo nodded.

“I can take it as well, little thing. For moral support, so to speak.”

The girl kissed him on the cheek and grinned.

“Deal!”

The new year was starting in high spirits and lots of things to look forward to…


End file.
